


Wild Fate

by snikkt



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 35,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snikkt/pseuds/snikkt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josephine Swire, part of Dumbledore's Army, walks in blindly to the Ministry of Magic with one mission - to save a man she has never met. But in an unexpected turn of events, she gets to know this man better than she had ever thought she would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

ONE

The air was cool as it lapped against Josephine Swire’s face. It surged through her hair, pulling apart curls as gently as an over-protective mother. Her fingers felt frozen into place, clamped against the rippling neck muscles of thin air. Luna sat sidesaddle behind her, jostling only slightly on the bony rump of the thestral. Josephine surely had an over-active imagination, but flying seemingly on nothing as the Thames coursed below them was beyond her.  
The powerful wings threatened to throw her off the beast as a bit of bile was driven acidly into her throat. Despite all this, worrying thoughts raged in her mind. What if they were too late? How would they even find him? The darkness gathered around them.  
Suddenly the thestral dropped a few feet below her and she was suspended before she landed roughly back, her stomach flopping sickeningly. There was a muffled shriek from Hermione on the thestral in front of her as it headed towards the ground too. The air around them seemed to thicken as they approached the bright lights of London. They picked up speed. Josie’s legs clamped around the sides of the thestral. They plunged towards the pavement, sending her forward a few inches, and as it seemed she would fall straight off the front of the beast, she pressed her eyes shut. She knew the ground was close, and she braced herself for a rough collision.  
There was a short clipping noise as the feet of the thestral hit the ground. They landed as lightly as a shadow. Josephine felt all her muscles relax against the beast and her hair finally swished forward, sent into crazy angles from the flight. Luna had already slid gracefully off the creature, and as Josephine looked up, Luna took her hand and helped her off the beast.  
“Never again,” she heard Ron say, a way off. He had toppled off his thestral and lay sprawled on the concrete. He said some other things along those lines, but Josephine stopped listening. She was just glad to have solid ground underneath her feet.  
She hitched up her trousers and gathered her jersey around her. It was a cold night, but that was the least of her worries. Thinking about what she was about to do made her shiver. The only thing that kept her on track was Harry’s apparent confidence. As the group re-collected, Harry led them to the red telephone box and held open the door for them. They hesitated, but then one by one dutifully squashed in.

The Atrium was completely empty. “The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening”, the almost amused female voice rang out. The doors opened and Harry and Luna toppled out of the box. The others picked their way around them and waited for Harry’s order. Josie got out her wand from her back pocket and twirled it nervously in her right hand. She looked around at the gleaming statues. The sounds of the Atrium were haunting. It was quiet, too quiet, in Josephine’s opinion, and the soft noise of water falling over the metal robes of the wizard and witch echoed around the hollow room.  
“Come on,” Harry said, almost silently. The group travelled quickly, and the trip was punctuated by Harry’s almost constant insistence that they don’t come with him. The group rallied each outburst. Eventually they came to a large, circular room. The group looked around, tensely awaiting something, anything, to happen. Josephine half expected deatheaters to come out of every door surrounding them, capturing them before they could do anything to save Sirius. She had not met Sirius, but knew of him. He was a good man, and Harry trusted him. The group huddled in the middle, and suddenly the walls started to move. They picked up speed and the room was rotating around them. It was completely disorienting, and the blue-flamed torches burned patterns in Josephine’s eyes as they spun around.  
As the room stopped reeling around them, Josie had her first look around. All the doors were identical. She could not tell one from the other, let alone which one they came through. Again, Dumbledore’s Army deliberated, and decided in the end that they should split up. Josie was silently disagreeing with this idea, but she assumed that Harry would know best, having battled the dark lord himself on numerous occasions. She wouldn’t admit it to the others, but the dark, shining tiles of the Department of Mysteries were freaking her out, and she felt afraid. She was paired up with Neville Longbottom and they chose a door to Josephine’s right.  
Each group; Herself and Neville, Ginny and Luna, Harry, Ron and Hermione each stood in front of a dark, ominous door of their own. They would look around, and then return to the room and report back. That was the plan, anyway. Neville’s hand hovered over the polished silver knob, and it shook as Harry wished them luck.  
“It’ll be all right,” Josephine said quietly to Neville. It was half to reassure herself, but no one needed to know that. They turned the doorknobs, and Dumbledore’s Army marched loyally into the unknown.


	2. Two

TWO

The room that Neville and Josie entered was unlike any other she had seen. There were shelves that reached up to the unbelievably high ceiling, made of some gloomy dark material that Josephine couldn’t place. They rose out over the pair, almost hanging over them. There were blue-flamed torches, just like in the circular room, which were placed every two metres or so along the shelves. The most intriguing thing about the room, however, was what sat on the shelves. Glowing metal time turners of all sizes were displayed along every surface, which made for almost no shadows in the room. Josie heard Neville whistle softly beside her, and she smiled at the spectacle. 

They started walking along one of the aisles, necks craned to look at all the inscriptions on the time turners. The aisle they walked along was coded “C”, and Josie saw that every time turner had a number. They followed the lines of the shelves and she saw numbers ranging from 302 to 945. This definitely was the Department of Mysteries. They had travelled for about two minutes when Josie decided this was enough investigation and turned to suggest to Neville that they met the others back in the circular room. 

However, when she turned around, Neville was nowhere to be seen. She was tempted to call out, but remembered what Harry had said about being as quiet as possible. She ran quickly back along the aisles, but didn’t see him.

“Neville!” She allowed herself. “Longbottom, you arse, get back here!” She whispered loudly down all the junctions between shelves. She was starting to panic, and ran down one of the other rows, telling herself that nothing had happened to him, that he had just wandered off. She turned a sharp corner and ran into something solid. She fell backwards, her wand skidding off down the smooth tiled floor. Josephine tried to gasp air back into her lungs as she propped herself up on her elbows. She looked up and saw a shadowy figure standing over her. 

“ _Malfoy_?” She exclaimed breathlessly, sitting up. Her heart thudded against her chest. Draco Malfoy stood tall before her, his wand pointing defiantly toward her chest. She quickly got up and stepped back. His face was twisted, his eyes dull.  Josie didn’t know what he was seeing, but it wasn’t her. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Her voice came out softer and more feeble than she had hoped. She didn’t know what he was capable of, and didn’t want to find out. 

“Yes, I do,” His voice was so soft she had to strain to hear it. “I do.” He was sad, desperate. He looked like he was on the brink of breaking down. His hair was disheveled, not slicked back like Josie was used to seeing, and he looked like he had been wearing the same robes for a week. He kept glaring at her, his wand still pointed, not moving from his original spot. Josephine took this opportunity to slowly pace back to try and grab her wand.

“No!” He cried out in a strangled voice. There was a flash of light past her eyes as he cast a wordless spell to skid the wand further away from her. There were footsteps. She heard them coming closer. “Neville!” Josephine shouted, no longer caring whether anyone heard. “Neville, I’m over here!” She bellowed, her eyes not straying from their stare into Draco’s. 

“Draco, darling! Where are you? Stop playing with your food!” She heard the cruel, shrill call of a voice she recognized. Bellatrix Black. Those were the footsteps. Not Neville. She was alone. 

“Don’t do this!” Josie told him in a last attempt. Suddenly he whipped his wand arm back. She thought that this was it, that he was going to kill her. She shielded her eyes, but instead of the shouted curse, the flash of green light she was expecting, there was a crash at her feet. She looked down to see shards of glass scattered on the floor, the small evidence of a vial of potion being smashed there. The potion itself was dark purple, oozing out from the splatter in the middle at the consistency of maple syrup… It was smoking, and time slowed. Josephine heard the footsteps coming closer, and she felt lightheaded.

Draco looked at her with his haunted eyes, and the smoke whirled around her brain as she inhaled it. She felt herself tipping, her feet stumbling, and her shoulder hitting the ground with a thump. She did not feel any pain, but she knew it was there. Josie saw Draco’s shiny black shoes walk towards her, and his knee close to her face as he knelt down. She was in and out of consciousness as he put something around her neck, something cold and heavy. The footsteps were coming closer, except now they were louder, reverberating in Josie’s brain like the heavy thump of some sick rock music. Her senses were heightened, and she closed her eyes. There was a cranking noise similar to a grasshopper’s song as it’s rhythm looped once… twice… Her mind went foggy and suddenly she heard nothing more.


	3. Three

THREE

It felt like her brains were sloshing around in her brain outside of her own free will. She groaned with the throbbing pain and tried not to move her head too much. Josephine slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. It felt like her eyes had completely dried out and the inside of her lids were sandpaper. 

“Ah, I’m glad you’re awake,” A masculine, but gentle voice said from across from her. She looked up to see a man who was obviously pretty well built back in the day. Now, however, his belly strained his work-shirt, and the state of his desktop showed that he liked to indulge in a donut or two. His mustache covered most of his top lip, and his stubble showed he’d had a busy time at the office. There wasn’t much more observation on Josie’s part to presume that this man was a cop. However, his face was kind and his eyes were as soft as his mouth stern. There was a name label on his desk that said “Chief Inspector Knop”.

“So, to what do I owe you the pleasure, Mr. Knop?” Josephine said hoarsely as she took in the rest of her surroundings. She tried to look casual – maybe they hadn’t found out there was more than just one stray teenager running the halls of the esteemed Ministry. There were two other men standing straight as planks on either side of the first man, hands clasped tightly together and gazes held firmly above Josie’s head. 

“Actually, Annabelle Knop is my boss,” He said with raised eyebrows. He sat up a bit and got comfortable in his chair, “I’m Inspector Kalt. Darius Kalt. I will be filling in for her as she has some more important business to conduct elsewhere. Now, I’m really sorry about the precautions-” Josie looked down and realized that looped around her waist and upper arms were several lengths of extremely strong-looking rope. “-I would prefer life without them, but alas, it is protocol.” She grunted, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

“What I would like to know, is how a mere teenager like yourself could be found in one of the most protected rooms in the Ministry of Magic?” So they hadn’t found the others then. The inspector looked expectantly into the girl’s eyes. As Josephine looked for an answer, she glanced uneasily at the two men standing guard.

“Uh, Hayden, Boyce!” Inspector Kalt reprimanded. He whistled short and sharp and nodded his head toward the door behind me. They both jerked into action, like tin toys that had been left on the shelf for a long time. The door was about to creak closed when I heard one of them say, “Actually, sir, it’s Harrows… Lance Harrows.”

Once the door closed, Kalt snorted. “What sort of ninny would name their child ‘Lance’, anyway?” From that point on, Josephine liked him. But liking is a far leap from trusting. 

“Well, the truth is…” Josephine stalled, “My dad works here. I came with him to work, but then I… uh, fainted.” She ended lamely. She was usually quite good at lying, but the stare that this man gave her was extremely disconcerting.

“The truth, huh?” He said disbelievingly. “So, humour me here. Your dad… took you to the Department of _Mysteries_?” Josephine closed her mouth and went quiet.

“Listen, kid, uh… what’s your name?” The inspector stopped mid-thought. “Josephine,” she supplied. Surely first names couldn’t do anyone harm. “Josephine. If you don’t tell me what happened, I can easily give you a truth potion to ensure your honesty… perhaps infused with a bit of tongue-loosening serum, for good measure.” He threatened smoothly. 

“That won’t be necessary,” She said quickly. “I mean, my dad really _did_ work at the Ministry…” 

“Did? Well, now, hang on a minute.” Kalt interjected, conjuring his magic quill to write down my expected confession. “Inspector Darius Kalt, 18th of June, 1975”, he dictated, and the quill started scribbling madly. 

“Wait!” Josephine launched herself forward, the rope catching her painfully against her arms and stomach. Something was not quite right. “What did you say?” She almost hissed.

“Uh, Inspector Darius Kalt?” The man said, confused.

“No-no, no, after that!” Josie exclaimed, impatient.

“18th of August, 1975…” 

“1975!” She cried. “What the hell?!” She fell back against the back of her chair and demanded an answer from the man. Surely he was delusional. “It’s 1995, for Merlin’s sake! Not 19-bloody-75!!” But suddenly she remembered, and everything made sense. The heavy object around her neck, that cold metal against her skin… “Merlin’s beard!” She wailed softly. A time-turner. 

Meanwhile, a very confused mustachioed man sat, looking at her with an extremely worried look. “1995, you say? But that’s…”

“Twenty years from now,” Josephine said miserably.

 


	4. Four

FOUR

Josephine told the man everything; uninterrupted and ending with how Draco had found her and forced her through the fourth dimension 20 years back in time. 20 years. Josie chewed it around in her brain. She would never see her mother again… Max, her brother… her friends. Suddenly she felt immensely alone. Especially after what happened to her father. The previous year, or rather, 19 years from now, her father would disappear. It was at the Quidditch World Cup, and they were back at the tent celebrating Ireland’s victory. 

There was late night hot chocolate prepared and Josie, her father and her brother crowded around a small bonfire that some of Max’s friends had created. Mr. Swire had infused all of their hot drinks with some of his prized firewhiskey, as he had decided that Josephine was old enough to have some. And why not, on such a momentous occasion? Mrs. Swire would have never approved, which is why it was fortunate that she was not present. 

They made jokes, as most of the older friends around the bonfire were surely drunk. Josie remembers this fondly just before the few hours of chaos that ensued – she sat silently, watching them all, surrounded by laughing, warm faces. Perhaps if she stayed quiet, they wouldn’t tease her for being younger and banish her to the squeaky bed she would sleep in inside the tent. Perhaps they wouldn’t notice that she didn’t quite belong. Mr. Swire sat with his side against Josephine’s, and she had never felt so warm. 

“What a life, aye?” Her father said privately to her, nudging her with his shoulder. In many ways, this was the best and worst night of her life. As one of Max’s friends was in the middle of his infamous Japanese Golfer Joke, their surroundings seemed to explode with noise. From somewhere far toward her right, Josie heard screams. All hell broke loose, almost literally. There was a terrifying swarm approaching them – the dark cloaks and cold, expressionless masks of the deatheaters. There were people being levitated and tortured, with screams of insane laughter shrilly racing through the air. It was the sound most opposite as possible to her dad’s low, grainy laugh from a few minutes ago. 

Josephine was transfixed to the spot. She heard her father shout at Max to get themselves away, and Max dragged her away to safety as quickly as he could. He wasn’t quick enough however, and engraved into her memory was the sight of her dad – trying to help fight off the deatheaters, forever the bravest Gryffindor in Josephine’s eyes. But bravery didn’t ensure survival, and she saw him being levitated, and just before they turned the corner into the woods, him being thrown aside like a mere object. That was all he was to them, an object. No one knew he was Josephine’s dad… her beloved hero. He landed with a thud and a loud shout. She never saw him again. In that way, it was also fortunate that Mrs. Swire was not present that night. 

Josie found herself crying, crumpling in on herself over the chafing confines of the ropes. Her chest felt hollow, as if someone had just taken away all that made her human. She struggled to get breaths back into her body and she looked up at Inspector Kalt. The man was a mixture of sympathy, sadness, and general awkwardness. 

“Well,” he said, deafeningly quiet. “Boyce! Hayden!” He shouted out toward the hallway. Josephine was unsure whether he purposefully god the surname wrong just to annoy the poor boy, or whether he genuinely just had an incredibly porous memory. Either way, she gave out a small snort of laughter and sniffed. The inspector gave the order to release Josephine from the ropes and she rolled her shoulders. There was a box of tissues suddenly waved under her nose and she looked up to see Kalt hovering expectantly.

“Thank you,” Josie said, trying to regain her usual confident demeanor as she took the box from his hands. She blew her nose and cleaned her face of tears.

“Now… uh, since you’re clearly innocent, there’s only one thing to do,” He said finally. 

“What’s that then?” Josephine said, her voice thick.

“Release you,” He replied simply.

“Surely you aren’t just going to…” She didn’t finish her sentence, imagining herself being kicked out into the wider world. She definitely wasn’t ready for that.

“No, no, of course not. I’m sure that your familiar Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore would gladly accept you back into Hogwarts with the right cover story,” He said swiftly, waving about his right hand.

“Surely I will,” Josephine suddenly heard from behind her. She turned around and saw a long-bearded man standing majestically in the doorway of Chief Inspector Knop’s office. He looked slightly younger, with less wrinkles around his eyes, and his hair was less white and more of a greyish variety, but indeed, this was the one and only Albus Dumbledore. Josie let out all the air in her lungs in a relieved sigh. Finally, a little familiarity in this new, alien world. 

 


	5. Five

FIVE

Josie did not know nor care how Dumbledore had gotten here so quickly, but she suspected it was something to do with the portraits in his office. It seemed Dumbledore was always the first to know everything. After he had inquired about certain details of Josephine’s travels, her cover story was discussed. 

She was still Josephine Swire, halfblood. Her mother was just an ordinary muggle, but her father was a wizard. The catch was that her father had died when Josephine was very young (the emotions of that situation wouldn’t be too hard to duplicate, Josie thought dryly), and her mother resented her for having the same gift as her father, for her brother was merely a muggle also. Therefore, on the day that Josephine turned eleven, all Hogwarts letters were hidden away from her and her mother secretly sent the school a declination response. 

From then on, her mother was unusually harsh with her, her brother was the favourite, and she was the freak who no one wanted. Eventually Mrs. Swire turned to abuse and Josephine ran away from home at the age of twelve. She went to live with her wizard uncle, brother of her father, Gerard Swire, who homeschooled her until that year, when she turned fifteen. At that point, the school realized the situation and they accepted her in for her fifth (or rather, first) year of education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In Josie’s opinion, this seemed a little bit too complicated. When she voiced her concerns, Dumbledore merely pointed out that if she said she transferred from Beauxbatons Academy, students would be disbelieving because Hogwarts doesn’t accept transfers. Josephine also added silently that she also didn’t have a remotely French accent. 

 

Josephine said her goodbyes and thank you’s to Inspector Kalt, and went with Dumbledore to the foyer, where they promptly apparated to Diagon Alley.  She looked around and, to her surprise, found that it looked almost identical to how it looked in her own time. The buildings stood impressively tall on either side of the bustling street, and the colours were still delightfully garish. 

“Now, since you merely have the clothes on your back, I assume you might want to buy some new ones. Your wand did not make it on your journey?” Dumbledore asked curiously.

“No, it didn’t,” She replied.

“So it seems you have quite the shopping trip to complete,” He regarded her with twinkling eyes and a raised eyebrow. He reached into the fold of his robes and brought out a bulging leather sack of wizard money. 

“I’d like to be modest and say that this isn’t necessary….” Josephine said as she gratefully took the sack of coins, “But it really is!”

“Quite. Now, I’m sure you’ll pay me back in tuition fees in twenty years or so, so this is the least I could do. I should be off. Minerva organized one of those dreaded staff meetings, and she’ll scratch my face off if I don’t make it on time.” _Quite literally_ , Josie thought. “This evening at half past five I will send someone to apparate you back to Hogsmeade. You are to meet them in front of the Leaky Cauldron.” At this point, Josephine was still curiously looking at her surroundings. There was a Nimbus 1001 in the display of the Quidditch shop. 

“Amazing,” she breathed, in awe. She turned around to inquire Dumbledore about it, but she was alone on the street, surrounded only by the hurried crowd. Josephine suddenly felt elated. She was left to her own devices! Her favourite kind of alone. Her first stop was Ollivander’s Wand Shop. It was much similar to her first visit there, in the fact that the old shopkeeper was somehow still old, and the piles of wand boxes towered over the customers below, almost quivering in anticipation. 

The most interesting thing though, was that she did not receive the same wand. Her previous one had been a nine-and-a-half-inch cedar wand with a dragon heartstring. The one that Ollivander had offered her now though, was an eleven-inch elm wand with a phoenix feather center. Josephine pondered on what this meant for a while, distracted with the new weight of the longer wand in her hand. After getting new school robes and books, Josephine decided it was time for a little clothes shopping. 

The styles of the time suited Josie fine, as long as she avoided the flare pants. She bought the basics in muggle London, and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, wondering who would be there to escort her back to Hogsmeade. She was grateful for small blessings – doing normal, mundane tasks brought her head back to earth. 

As she approached the doors of the popular wizarding pub she saw a middle-aged woman standing under the arch. She checked the time with her new wand. She was still ten minutes early. The woman’s dark hair was drawn back severely into a bun and her pink lips were pressed into an impatient scowl. As soon as she caught sight of Josephine, she smiled a little bit and walked toward her.

“Hi,” Josie acknowledged.

“Miss Swire, I presume. I am Professor McGonagall. Professor Dumbledore instructed me to meet you here,” She said clippingly. Before anything else could be discussed, McGonagall took her hand and they disapparated.

 


	6. Six

SIX

It was the month before the school year commenced, and Josephine had the castle virtually to herself. Professor McGonagall had led her cordially to the Gryffindor Common Room, as there was no point in sorting her again. Even though she knew very well where the common room was, she was grateful for the company and politely thanked her as she took her leave.

 

Josie woke up in the early hours of the afternoon the next day, and upon getting out of her bed, fell promptly over the shopping bags she had dumped there the night before. She groaned and rolled over to her back. She lay there for another 5 minutes, staring up at the wooden ceiling and considering her life. She hoped that when her dorm mates arrived that they wouldn’t question her too much on her history. She knew the cover story well enough, but was still nervous about staying believable. 

She had discussed with Inspector Kalt and Professor Dumbledore the chances of her travelling back to 1995. They had come up with nothing – time turners had not been invented yet, and the time turner that Draco had sent her back with hadn’t come with her. Josephine and the two men threw around theories with this, and decided that since Josie had not been the one to turn the magical trinket, it would be natural that it stay behind with the turner. 

Josephine was not sure how she felt about everything. Sure, she felt terribly sad about leaving behind her family and her few friends… but maybe this was a fresh start for her. She had always been some sort of outcast in her previous life, as a bookworm and artist. Her brown hair was never obedient to her command, and sat in unruly curls around her face. These things combined with her short fused temper had earned her more than a few judgmental looks from her peers. 

She bit her lip as she contemplated this. Things would change. Perhaps in this more adventurous generation she would fit in more, and find a place where she belonged. For the rest of the day she organized all of her new clothes into a suitcase that was supplied by the school, and stacked her schoolbooks underneath her bed, taking occasional breaks to the Kitchens, the entrance of which she had learned from Harry.

 

The next few weeks went quickly for Josephine. She explored the castle, and got to know it again, like a friend she hadn’t visited in a while. She was consumed in her own thought, as she realized that Harry’s parents would be in the same year as her. She had to put that in the back of her mind. She could not think about the future… her past. It would only mess up her view on the world around her and probably blow her cover. She was a new person now. 

The dinner feasts were delicious as ever, and she ate with the staff in the Great Hall. She wondered if they were always present a week before the students arrived, or if they were there for her benefit. She decided on the previous. Either way, the dinners went awkwardly, as she made polite conversation with a particularly enthusiastic Professor Slughorn. She didn’t particularly like him, but she wanted to pass Potions, and let him blabber on. 

Josephine had discussed her subject choices with Professor McGonagall, and continued with what she had been studying previously. This included Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against The Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic (the horror), Potions, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. For the rest, she was officially a student now. Her preceding drama was forgotten and she was ordinary once more. Well, almost.

 

By the time that the first day of school arrived, Josephine had already covered her part of the dorm wall with assortments of drawings and sketches she had completed in her time of settling into her new living space. The central furnace of the room crackled warmly as she anxiously awaited the arrival of the other students. She sat in her school uniform on the wide windowsill. Through the paneled window she saw the scatters of first years making their way across the rippling water of the Black Lake. 

It was an amazing sight – the stars were reflected hazily in the dusky water as quivering groups of bobbing lights crossed their way to the castle. She stood up suddenly and hurried out of the dorm, passing the mirror hung on the wall. Her deep brown eyes looked back anxiously at her in a fleeting glance as she sprinted toward the Great Hall. Her steps were almost silent through the halls, as instead of the usual black school shoes, she was wearing subtle black converse. She took the stone stairs two at a time as she practically flew toward the imposing entrance hall. She stopped abruptly as the sea of dark-robed students streamed across her path. She could see a glimmer of light through the doors of the Great Hall, accompanied with the smell of freshly varnished wood and scented candles. She stood a few steps up from the ground level, marveling at the beauty she had missed since an almost fully-fledged war broke out in her time. _So this is what if feels like_ , Josie thought, her heart in her throat, _to have a home_.

 


	7. Seven

SEVEN

Josephine Swire morphed into the crowd seamlessly, and it wasn’t until she sat down until someone noticed her for the first time. She took her seat next at the Gryffindor table next to a girl with blond hair loosely gathered up into a bun. She turned to Josephine, whisps of hair floating around her round face. She had a light dusting of freckles and round, stunningly blue eyes. 

“Hi,” The girl said, clearly surprised, but still smiling. “Listen, darling, I hate to break it to you, but this is the Gryffindor table.” She said privately. Josephine laughed.

“I know,” She replied defiantly. But before Josephine could introduce herself, the Great Hall went silent. She turned toward the front of the Hall, where Dumbledore stood patiently in front of his pedestal. He cleared his throat, and without saying a word, gestured toward the gaping arch of the entrance with an open palm. A couple of rows of adorable-looking little first years filed in, lead by a disgruntled looking McGonagall, her robes sweeping around her as she carried a short stool and the old, tattered sorting hat. The reason for her dissatisfaction was apparent a few moments later, as Josie caught sight of a first year boy who had fallen into the lake, judging by his soaked appearance. 

“There’s always one,” The blonde girl beside Josie whispered to her friend. Josephine snorted as the group reached the front of the Hall. McGonagall sat down the stool and held the sorting hat up with one hand while the other held a yellowed piece of parchment.

“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” she called out through the Hall. As the sorting commenced, the blonde girl next to Josephine elbowed her.

“So what’s your deal?” She asked, leaning toward her discretely.

“Uh, this is actually my first year at Hogwarts,” She replied, still facing the front lest she get a detention before school even officially started. The girl snorted. As the first Gryffindor was sorted, Josephine whistled loudly.

“You hardly look like a first year,” The girl continued as the noise died down. Josephine sniggered.

“That’s because I’m not,” She whispered. There was a short silence and a slight, pale hand was thrust in front of Josephine’s nose.

“Marlene McKinnon,” She said shortly. 

“Josephine Swire,” She offered, shaking Marlene’s hand. “Now shut up, you’ll get us in trouble,” They both grinned. Someone else was soon sorted into Gryffindor, and the table erupted in cheers once more. Three more students came to join the Gryffindor table before the sorting was over. Dumbledore then nodded his thanks to McGonagall and addressed the school.

“First of all, welcome to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! It has surely been a long day for you all, but I’d like to make some announcements before you tuck in to your well-deserved feast. The Whomping Willow is still strictly out of bounds for all students, unless you would like to loose a limb. Additionally, we have another new student in the school. I’d like to invite everyone to welcome Josephine Swire warmly to our academy, who will be joining us in Fifth Year.” 

Dumbledore paused, as there was a hum of curious conversation coming from all four tables in the Hall. He gestured once more for silence, and continued. “I am sure that you all are bursting with questions for this young lady, but I ask you to politely refrain from bombarding her lest she is forced to make an untimely visit to Madame Pomfrey’s quarters. Now that is all said and done, the very best of evenings to you all!” He finished with an amused air.

The familiar pop and surprised squeaks from the first years indicated that the feast had apparated onto the table. A very aromatic smell wafted toward Josie and she suddenly felt very hungry. There was a warm chorus of banter hovering over the Hall as Josephine served herself some chicken.

“Hey, Josie,” Marlene bumped Josephine’s side with her shoulder. Josie jumped a little at the sudden familiarity. She looked up to see Marlene grinning at her manically. “This is Lily. Lily, Josie, Josie Lily,” Marlene stated rapidly, leaning back so that Josephine could take a look at the girl who sat on the other side of her. She had a mane of fiery red hair combed to one side of her head, revealing one brilliant green eye looking at her with a keen gaze. Her skin was pale, but it seemed paler against the vibrancy of her hair. She gave a small smile.

“Lily Evans,” Lily said kindly, offering her a hand. Josephine was felt petrified on the spot, and had to jerk into motion to shake her hand. _Harry’s mother! No,_ she told herself firmly. _Not Harry’s mother, but just a nice girl in my year._ Perhaps they would even become friends. This thought was so insane to Josephine that she started to laugh to herself. Lily, luckily, took it as flustered anxiety, and assured her that she and “Marley” would take good care of her. Josephine offered her sincerest gratitude, and kept up her performance by asking whether they would show her around the campus tomorrow.

“Sure! Me and Lily aren’t taking the same classes, but put together we’d probably be able to get you everywhere,” Marlene said, before putting a mouthful of pheasant in her mouth. Josephine felt exhilarated, and the conversation between the three girls went late into the night until they were ushered to their dorms by McGonagall and a nervous-looking prefect. Josie was so exhausted by that time that she didn’t have time to talk to any of her other dorm mates before they all fell asleep, comfortably surrounded by the warm glows of the dying fire. 

 


	8. Eight

EIGHT

Josephine got woken up the next morning by the incessant chirping of Lily’s muggle alarm clock. She groaned as she reflected on the unfortunate case that she was always most comfortable in bed when she had to get out of it. There were the sounds of movement in the rest of the room, and suddenly Josie remembered where she was, and leapt out of bed. This movement was less graceful than she had hoped, however, and she got caught in the scarlet curtains surrounding her four-posted bed. Marlene’s laughter carried throughout the room.

“Oh, shut up, you,” Josie scolded, smiling as she batted the offending drapes away and made her way toward the bathroom. She quickly got dressed into her robes and battled with her hair. As she struggled to pull out the knots without making her hair too frizzy, a cat-eyed girl with long, straight and glossy dark brown hair joined her in the mirror. 

“Good morning,” Josephine said, making room for her in the cramped space. She gave up on her hair as it settled back into some sort of voluminous dark halo around her head. “Is it really?” The groggy teenager shot back. Josie raised her eyebrows and made a quick escape. Her mother had made that quip too many times for Josie to be ignorant to the consequences of her response. Lily caught her expression as she made it back to the dorm room. “Dorcas isn’t really a morning person,” She supplied quietly as she pulled on her shoes.

“I hadn’t noticed. Whose is the fifth bed?” She asked, as the fifth bed was still neatly made up as if no one had slept there.

“No one’s. Us Gryffindor fifth year girls are a rare species,” Marley said from the doorway. She leant against it, her school bag over one shoulder. “You coming? Dorcas usually takes her own sweet time,” Her voice became louder on the last few syllables as she called out. 

“Yeah, okay,” Josie smiled at Marlene as the three girls walked their way down for breakfast. 

 

 They sat down at the Gryffindor table, but were either very early or late, because there weren’t many students joining them, except for a copse of sulky Slytherins at the back of the Hall and some loud, gossiping Hufflepuffs. 

“Jesus Christ, Lily,” Josephine said to the girl. “How early did you set that alarm clock to?” Lily just smiled, as Marlene grumbled and took her seat next to Josie.

“She does that every morning. It’s actually quite good, because then we get to breakfast before the rush hour, but I’ll never admit that to Lily,” Marley told Josephine. Lily chuckled under hand and the girls helped themselves to pieces of toast.

“So those drawings on your wall,” Marley said through a mouthful of jam, “You drew those?”

“Yeah, I had a bit of time on my hands, so…” Josephine trailed off.

“ _You_ drew those?” Lily echoed.

“Yeah, that’s what I just-” 

“They’re really good!” She interrupted.

“That’s so awesome, I wish I could draw like that,” Marlene added enthusiastically. Josephine knew that they really weren’t that good. She wasn’t being just modest; they were just sketches – and just a hobby. She tried to assure the other two girls of this, but they wouldn’t hear a second of it. Just as they let the subject drop, three disheveled-looking boys plunked down on the bench opposite them.

“Lily, Marlene… New girl,” A tall, lanky boy with extremely messy black hair and rectangular glasses greeted each of them in turn. Josephine almost choked on her toast as she immediately recognized the boy as Harry Potter. She took a double take. Luckily the boy seemed to not have noticed, as he was gazing avidly at a sour-looking Lily. _Of course_ , Josephine thought. It was James Potter, Harry’s father. The resemblance was uncanny, but now that Josie was paying attention, she spotted James’s hazel eyes. It was practically the only thing that set them apart, although if Josephine had kept looking she would surely find more differences, like the stronger jawline and heavier eyebrows. 

The unexpected blow left Josephine momentarily breathless as she felt the pain of the friends she would never see again. She mentally shook herself out of it and pretended like nothing had happened, even though she could still feel the almost tangible hole in her chest. Josie turned her attention to the other two boys. There was a rather short, plumpish boy with wispy dark blonde hair parted in the middle who sat beside James with eyes that told he was not quite awake yet. Josie regrettably recognized him as Peter Pettigrew, the boy who would one day grow up to be the indirect killer of his own friends. She put this thought out of her mind, however, because at this moment in time (in the _present,_ Josie assured herself), he was merely a boy attending breakfast at Hogwarts.

The third boy slouched over the table, one hand holding his chin up as he watched Josephine with a crystal grey eye. The other one was shrouded in a mop of long, black hair that waved around his face and grazed the edge of his robes. One eyebrow was cocked upward, and his mouth twitched in a handsome, lop-sided smile until his turned his attention back to his friends. Judging by the people he surrounded himself with and the way his school shirt was bunched up around his elbows, this was surely Sirius Black. His tie lay undone around his loosely buttoned collar, and he leaned back against the dark brick of the edge of the mantle with one foot up tucked up on the bench as he fiddled with tying the ends. 

“Where’s Remus this morning?” Marlene asked James, and Josephine was partially listening. She would have been fully listening has Sirius not been staring at her again.

“Is there something wrong?” She asked, gesturing with her butter knife.

“Not at all… I’m Sirius Black,” He stated in an amused voice. 

“I’m Jos-”

“The new girl, I know,” Sirius interjected. 

“Josephine Swire,” Josie said firmly. 

“So what’s your story, new girl?” Sirius said.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you that myself, but you know, bombardment and all that,” Marley joined the conversation.

“Uh,” Josephine stalled. “How about we meet tonight in the Common Room and I’ll tell you all the whole story? That way I won’t have to tell it a million times…”

“Whoo, storytime!” Marlene squeaked. “I can’t wait.” Sirius caught Josephine’s eye and dramatically rolled his. She laughed, and as Josephine introduced herself to the others and Marlene told them about the impending ‘storytime’, McGonagall walked past with the timetables. Josephine received hers and immediately her good mood was squandered. She groaned loudly. As the others received their timetables, no one had to ask what caused her disdain. There, in elegant script under the first class of the day was written ‘Potions’. 

 


	9. Nine

NINE

As the group entered the Potions classroom, James kept an eye on Lily to see where she sat. The desks were, as always, arranged in pairs, and Josie could see his intentions. Sirius gave James an encouraging push as he walked over. Lily took a seat in the second row, but as James was approaching, she quickly called over Marlene to come sit beside her. Josephine suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for him as he collapsed instead beside a blonde boy in the row behind. Some more observation told Josie that this was the evasive Remus Lupin. She remembered the man from her third year at Hogwarts as the best Defense teacher she had ever had. 

He leaned heavily on his desk, resting his chin on his crossed forearms as he waited for the lesson to start. His hair was a tousled mop of dark blonde that flopped over his darkly shadowed eyes and Josephine was painfully reminded of his lycanthropy. His clothes were shabby, but not as bad as he would have in the future.

Josie sat down in an empty seat and her thoughts were interrupted with the realization that she had no one to sit with. Sirius stood beside her and seemed to have realized the same thing, as he shouldered Peter off and told him to go sit somewhere else before sitting down abruptly next to Josephine. She caught a glance of Peter’s hurt face before he sauntered off to the other side of the room.

“Wow,” Josephine scoffed. “I don’t know whether to be grateful that you’ve come to sit beside a loner or to be appalled at the way you just treated your friend.” 

Sirius snorted. “Are you kidding? I did him a favour,” He leant back and pointed rather indiscreetly at where Peter had gone to sit. A small Hufflepuff girl covered with freckles, and a rather becoming blush was making conversation with him. “The sod has been making eyes at her for ages.” 

“You’re so evil!” Josie laughed, and caught Sirius’s grin.

“I know.” 

 

Slughorn came into the room and said nothing as he appraised the class with a gaze that he must have meant to be stern, but came off as a rather forced grimace. The students in the class were either oblivious to this, or were purposefully ignoring him, because he eventually gave up and caught the class’s attention with the obnoxious tapping of his wand against his cauldron. 

“Now, now, settle down… that’s better. Welcome to your first Potions lesson of the year!” He gave a little smile and paused as if he was waiting for applause. When none came, he awkwardly cleared his throat. “Uh, so… Today we’ll be straying a bit from the curriculum, as I’d rather ease you in to usual, rather demanding O.W.L. schedule. We’ll be making less of a potion than a common resource, called Phosphoroil.” Lily was frantically flipping through her Potions textbook. “The recipe is on this parchment that I am distributing now. No books will be required, unless you are researching the ingredients.” The pieces of paper floated through the air to each table. “Go!” Slughorn ended enthusiastically. “No, wait! I should say that the homework for tonight is to write an essay on the many uses of Phosphoroil. Hand them in to me on Friday!”

“He sounds as delighted as a five-year old girl on Christmas morning,” Sirius said gruffly, under his breath. 

“Is he always like that?” Josie asked as she reprimanded the parchment. 

“Unfortunately.”

“Okay! So, Phosphoroil,” She started reading the parchment aloud as Sirius got out Josephine’s pewter cauldron. She noted silently that he seemed to not have brought any equipment to class at all.

 

The ingredients for the Potion stood on the dark table like a congregation of inanimate objects around the heating cauldron.

“We won’t need the amber sprouts till the end, so we should prepare them first…” Josephine looked up from her reading and saw Sirius mashing the delicate, shiny red shoots into a pulp. “What are you doing?!” Josie exclaimed and leaned over to grab his fist around the mortar and pestle to stop him from continuing.

“We need the oil and the sprouts separately! If you mash them up then you’ll ruin both…” Josephine glanced up at his face and as she suddenly apprehended how close they were, her sentence trailed off. Sirius’s messy black hair grazed against her forehead and his eyes regarded her with steely amusement. She could smell the musky scent of cinnamon off his person, and was suddenly hyperaware of the warmth of his upper arm against her side.  Mortified, Josephine gathered herself and tersely snapped back to her previous position.

“Uh…” The girl screwed up her face in concentration as she tried to grasp at the rapidly retreating thoughts of what she was trying to say. Sirius leaned back onto the back two legs of his chair and waited for her composure with a smug expression.

“How do you propose we do it then?” He supplied, to the immense gratitude of Josephine.

“You have to cut it down the middle and let it drip out for a while…” She avoided eye contact as she seized the remaining sprouts. “It takes ages, which is why we have to do it at the beginning, then by the time we need them, they’ll be ready. Now, get your arse into gear. We have to kill some slugs.”


	10. Ten

TEN

Josephine found that the curriculum had apparently gotten harder in the next twenty years, as most of the class content was surprisingly easy for her. This, of course, allowed her to spend most of her time doodling in the most boring of classes. She had bought a ton of ballpoint pens in muggle London, which were a lot more satisfying to draw with than quills. She was caught only once, but by the pleasant serendipity of the simpler syllabus, Josie could answer the quick-fire question shot at her by Professor Cardimino in Ancient Runes, to make sure she was listening, without too much trouble. 

That night she arrived at the Common Room with Remus, who had been typically nice to her as he introduced himself to her in the Ancient Runes class they shared. She emerged from the portrait hole with a backpack sagging with homework for the week over one shoulder. The sight of the rest of the Marauders, Lily and Marlene sitting congregated around the hearth greeted Josephine. There was always a soft warm light in the Gryffindor Common Room that she was very fond of, and it reminded her that this was her home now. Marlene was the first to notice them and waved them over. They made room for her on the couch and Sirius pushed James off the side with a nonchalant shove of his elbow. The boy sprawled on the floor and staged an offended look toward Sirius as he made himself comfortable with his back facing the heat of the dancing flames.

Josephine collapsed on the couch next to Marlene, who was said nothing but was staring at her very pointedly. After a while, everyone pried Josie enough to start telling her story, despite all her efforts to direct the conversation elsewhere. She told the story the way Dumbledore had told it to her – starting off with her father’s death and ending with the Hogwarts Letter arriving five years late. The group remained mostly silent, except for Sirius asking the occasional disrupting question, whom Remus eventually silenced with an adept wave of his wand. 

The Common Room around them stayed abuzz with alternate conversations, but Josephine knew that certain people were listening in. She didn’t mind. It would mean she wouldn’t have to tell the story too many more times, which was good because she hated lying about her family, her mother especially. She was also glad to get this out of the way. With a backstory, she could continue her life as if it was the truth and feel like this was reality, and not just some hazy dream.

As she finished, she looked up at the others’ wide eyes and gave a nervous laugh to stop the tears from escaping. 

“And they lived happily ever after, the end!” The words fled her mouth in an almost incoherent string of sounds as she picked up her bag and sped toward the dorm room. It would be a bad idea for them to see her cry. This whole story was too much already. She could feel their gazes locked into her back like a fleet of snipers as she reached the archway. Before she could, however, a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“Josephine,” She turned around to see Remus, slightly taller than her, looking down at her with worried eyes. “I just wanted to say that you’re really, uh, brave for telling us that. It’s not easy to share secrets.”

She knew he was saying this from experience, and she took his hand off her shoulder with her own. Little did he know that she had a million more secrets that she could never tell, of his best friends’ deaths, and his life bound of undefined duty and of the chaos that the world would become. They were now her burden to bear. Remus pulled her into an inviting hug that enveloped her with the friendly warmth that she didn’t know she had missed. Before she could stop herself, she whispered quietly in his ear, her voice thick with her contained tears.

“It’s Dumbledore we have to feel sorry for. Two pranksters who could burn the school down any minute, a crazy nutter from the middle of nowhere, and a werewolf, all in one year…” She pulled back and gave him a sad smile. His eyebrows were knitted together in puzzled surprise and he was locked to the spot, the wiry muscles in his back and arms going tense.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” Josephine assured him as she closed his mouth with two slender fingers against his coarse jaw. She stroked his cheek and turned toward the stone steps. Now she had a one up on the poor fellow, which would, unbeknownst to Josephine, make for a steadfast friendship from that point on. He was now a person whom she could indisputably trust, which subconsciously, made her feel infinitely more grounded. Remus watched her ascend the steps as she imagined the emergency Marauders meeting that would undoubtedly be held in a few minutes time. Josephine Swire slept better that night than she ever had since she arrived in 1975. 

 


	11. Eleven

ELEVEN

The next day Josephine constantly peered around corners before she entered hallways in the anticipation of the Marauders ambushing her in search of answers. Her nervousness was seemingly apparent, as Marlene kept on backhanding her shoulder in frustration whenever she would hesitate, and overtake her in the slowing traffic of the corridors. However, Josie could, of course, not reveal the reason for her hesitation. She was inside her head for the majority of the time, mulling over what she would say to them. She hadn’t realized till that morning what a terrible mistake she had made.

How was she supposed to explain to them how she knew? There was no logical explanation to this, and if she tried to make one up it would sound false. The boys would surely be distrustful of her, but what could they do? A memory charm? It was surely against the school rules, but that never stopped them before. Whenever her thoughts turned to this, Josephine had to assure herself that they wouldn’t do anything as drastic as that, but she had only known them for two days. What did she know?

Josie considered talking to Dumbledore with her predicament, but she didn’t want to bother him. He was probably busy with more important matters and she didn’t want him to think her incompetent, especially after all he had done for her. All she could do was wait for the confrontation.

But the confrontation didn’t come. In fact, the only time that she saw the Marauders at all was in Defense Against the Dark Arts just before lunch. They were in their usual place at the back of the class, and Josephine kept looking back at them. There was no obvious sign from the outside that they were distressed about their recent accumulation of knowledge regarding Remus’s secret-that-wasn’t-a-secret-anymore. At least, it wasn’t to Josephine. 

They sat as they always did. Sirius was balancing on his back two chair legs, wearing an indifferent expression as Professor Woelf berated the class for not cleaning up the mess from yesterday’s duel. James sat beside him, upper body draped over his desk, painfully similar to how Harry Potter would sit. At the desks to the pair’s left sat Remus and Peter. The latter showed the only sign of tension, but Josephine couldn’t remember if he was always like this or not. 

Remus looked up from writing notes from the blackboard and caught Josephine staring at him. Something inside her tightened and she whipped her head back to the front. She silently accommodated the thought that perhaps Remus hadn’t told anyone after all.

 

After class Josephine walked to lunch flanked by Lily and Marlene. A sea of Hogwarts students surrounded them, and they were part of the tide. As the girls were about to cross the courtyard, something caught Josephine’s eye. It came from somewhere to her left, poking out from the horizon of the corridor’s end. It was a curious shape, not quite a person, and too light to be a silhouette. She paused.

“Hey, guys, I just remembered something I have to do, I’ll meet you in the hall later,” Josie said quickly, and vaguely to the others. “But if you don’t see me before the bell rings, don’t wait up, I’ll just see you in Charms or something,” She added over her shoulder as she pushed her way through the crowd. Marlene muttered something about Josephine being particularly jumpy recently, but she took no heed. Josie reached a quiet part of the hallway and looked around. The walls were bare and there was a single window reaching all the way to the alcove’s ceiling, but apart from that, it was a dead end. 

Suddenly, she was jerked backwards by a force situated at her neck. She let out a strangled cry and her surroundings plunged into darkness. She was pushed against a cold, craggy wall and a hand was pressed against her mouth as something else held her back across her collarbone. She breathed hard against the fingers of her captive and clawed her hands against the stone of the wall. 

“Lumos,” whispered a nervous voice, and Peter Pettigrew’s wand tip illuminated his round face. Josephine’s eyes darted around and found Sirius’s face close, with his piercing grey eyes locked on hers.

“How much do you know?” He said in a low, half-whisper. Her eyebrows drew together and she pushed him bodily away. Josie looked at him and tried to look as unimpressed as she could. Sirius stumbled back, but his gaze never faltered. 

“How was I supposed to answer with your bloody hand over my mouth?” Josephine said defiantly, before catching the sight of Remus, clearly uncomfortable, standing beside Peter and trying to look small. Josie sighed and rolled her shoulders. “I know everything,” She said calmly to the floor.

James had apparently decided that Sirius wasn’t really one for interrogating and pushed him aside to take his place in front of Josephine. 

“How did you find out? You’ve only been here for a couple days,” He said, firm, but somehow infinitely more rational than Sirius. Thoughts swam around in Josephine’s brain like an endless whirlpool of confusion. Everything was messed up. Why couldn’t she just keep her stupid mouth closed for one minute? She scrunched her eyes closed, hand over her eyes, and fell back against the wall.

“I…” _I, what? I know about it because I’m from the fucking future? I know about it because I was friends with your bloody son?_ No. She could never tell them the truth. She would be condemned as crazy for the rest of her life, and only Dumbledore and McGonagall would ever know the reality. She moaned and looked at the ceiling. She looked desperately, apologetically, earnestly, and straight into Remus’s eyes before replying,

“I can’t tell you.”


	12. Twelve

TWELVE

 “What do you mean, you can’t tell us?!” Sirius’s voice burst out of the silence. All of the marauders were looking at Josephine with varying degrees of confusion and outrage.

“I just can’t! All I can say is that it was a reliable source, and I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe!” She ended desperately, voice cracking on the last few syllables. How much longer did she have to keep lying?

“That’s bullshit,” Sirius spat.

“We hardly know you!” James agreed. Josephine looked at Remus. His brow was creased and he looked unfocused.

“I know, I know,” she said, trying to calm the two boys down. “I know it’s stupid, and I shouldn’t have said anything at all… But please. Just trust me.” Her voice was sucked into the darkness as if she hadn’t said anything at all. Sirius stayed quiet, but the look on his face said that he hadn’t changed his mind. James looked hesitant, but he too, was well known for his stubbornness. 

“I’m sorry. But I really can’t tell you. You have to understand that if I could, I would,” She spoke to Remus. Peter’s wand faltered with the lighting, and for the first time Josie remembered his presence in the room. She looked at him, but he looked scared of her, and was particularly uncomfortable under her gaze. There was no way Peter would be on her side. He was an okay bloke ( _in this time,_ thought Josephine briefly before furiously dispelling it from her mind), but he didn’t make any decisions without the guidance of one of the other boys.

James and Sirius were too single-minded, and this was about Remus anyway, not them. The silence felt like an age as she stared pleadingly at Remus. He stood in the pale wand-light, which made the shadows under his eyes even more apparent than usual. He was chewing on his lip, and in the dim of the room, he almost looked like a part of the wall, sagged against it in frustration and partially obscured by the taller Sirius Black.

“ _You_ believe me, don’t you?” She said to him. Sirius followed her gaze and appraised the boy expectantly.

“Yes.” Remus Lupin replied simply. His expression said it all. His eyebrows where still crinkled but his eyes were kind, and he shot Josephine a small smile.

“What? Seriously?” Sirius exclaimed. “You’re just going to let it go like that? What if she tells?”

“She won’t.” Remus said firmly. “And, besides, this is my problem and as grateful as I am for all your help, I don’t really think it’s in your place to give me advice on who to trust.” His voice came out in a calm, sensible manner that made Sirius pause in his step. Before anything more could be said, Remus walked out of the chamber through one of the seemingly solid walls to Josie’s left. _So it was some sort of secret passage,_ she noted.

Sirius turned to Josephine, who suddenly felt extremely vulnerable and pressed herself against the wall again. His gaze raked her up and down in scrutiny before he came back up to her eyes to give her one of those short nods that boys always give. He turned around and grunted to James and Peter to come and get some lunch before the bell rang again. Josephine followed him with her eyes, nose wrinkled in disgust. 

What a douche.

 

The rest of the day commenced as if nothing happened. Despite Josephine’s newly developed distaste for Sirius Black, her demeanor was back to normal, and a weight was lifted off her shoulders. She could sleep easy that night knowing that at least Remus didn’t hate her. _That Sirius Black, though,_ she pondered. Seems like not just Peter changed in those twenty years. Every time she passed him in the hallway for the rest of that week, he would look at her, but not completely acknowledge her. It annoyed Josephine out of her mind, and eventually she talked to Marlene and Lily about it one night after Astronomy.

“Either he likes you, or he’s trying to ‘figure you out’”, Marlene said through a mouthful of chocolate frog, sitting cross-legged and straight backed upon her bed.

“‘Figure me out’?” 

“Yeah,” Lily said from the bed next to Marlene’s. “Boys do that. If they don’t understand something they scrunch their faces up and think about it really hard. Can’t multitask, remember?” She retorted, brandishing her quill as she looked up from writing her Potions essay. 

Josephine couldn’t help but scoff. ‘Figure her out’? Hardly. She knew that those glares in the hallway meant that he probably just straight up hated her. To think that she risked and lost her whole life for that arrogant git made her want to punch a wall. She refrained, but still spoke many silent, but nevertheless ill words toward him every time she thought of him. Which was more often than she would have liked.

 


	13. Thirteen

THIRTEEN

Josephine was drawing on her potions essay in the Gryffindor Common room when Remus approached her. She and Lily were sitting at the desk next to the window looking out on the black lake, and Josie could hardly concentrate on the paper. It was one of those afternoons where, from the inside, the weather looks glorious. One could find themselves drawn to go for a walk outside, only to be met with the pleasant chill of early autumn.

Josie ripped her gaze away from the window as Remus coughed from behind her. He had apparently come from outside, as his Gryffindor scarf was wrapped several times around his neck and his nose was red from the cold. 

“Hey, could I talk to you for a minute?” He said to Josephine, casting a worried glance at Lily across the table. Lily gave them both an annoyingly knowing smile and sweeped her stuff from the table with practiced speed. As soon as Remus saw her blazing red head disappear out the portrait hole, he put his attention back on Josephine.

“I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry for the way Sirius acted,” He started off awkwardly. 

“That’s okay. In fact, it really isn’t your fault,” She said matter-of-factly as she stood up from her chair. “If someone was going to apologize, it should be him.” She glanced across the room at the devil himself. Sirius lay spread out on the couch, which the rest of the Gryffindors had wordlessly accepted belonged exclusively to the Marauders. He looked bored as James talked animatedly beside him.

“Yeah, but I doubt he’s going to do that, so…” Remus laughed lightly. Josephine leaned against the back of the chair and looked back at Remus.

“Well, apology accepted then, I guess. Hey, I heard something about a Hogsmeade visit soon?” 

“Yeah, I heard about that too. It’s next week,” He said, his eyes wandering around as if this information didn’t really matter to him. “Oh, I forgot! You’ve probably never been to Hogsmeade before.”

Something inside Josephine froze. “Uh—no, I haven’t.” Her speech came out fragmented. “Not properly anyway, I only passed through on the way here.” She was just about to ruin her cover.

“Maybe we should go together… You know, as friends,” he added on quickly. As Remus was struggling for words she gathered herself and tried to stay in character. “‘Cause then I can show you all the good places, you know?” Remus’s face scrunched up slightly. Josephine guessed, amused, that he was internally chastising his sudden illiterateness. 

“That sounds really nice,” She assured, smiling. Remus’s face lit up, which, Josephine brusquely admitted, made him look infinitely more handsome. The light streaming through the window lit up the floating dust between them and she sighed.

“Hogwarts is wonderful, isn’t it?” He said quietly.

“Yeah, it really is,” 

“People often forget about what a beautiful place this is because they see it everyday. We are so lucky, Josephine.” Lucky. In a sense, she was. She left behind the chaotic world where she was constantly running… physically, metaphorically. She stumbled into this world like it was an alternate universe. Sure, the dark forces were rising silently and steadily behind them, like a zit that creeps up on you overnight. One of those ones that eventually, you can’t ignore. Josephine laughed privately at the analogy. It was this kind of blunt humour that kept her from going over the edge. A war was rising. But this time she could do something about it.

“Lucky,” She repeated.

“What are you thinking about?” She looked at Remus. Half of his face was lit up by the warm, comforting afternoon sun, and his eyes glinted with interest.

“I have never felt so at home in my life… and I can’t help but feel like it’s going to end someday. Everything is going to end.” She said it peacefully. It was killing her inside, but somehow her words came out eloquently. The recipe to coherent thoughts was to let them brew for several hours. “I realized it a while ago, but now I know.”

“Know what?”

“These are the best days of our lives. It’s a terrible thing to know, but I know it.” She watched Remus contemplate this.

“I refuse to believe it.” He stated. 

“Good attitude to have.”

“No really.” He said. “Once we’re out of here, I don’t have to worry about those two over there wrecking everything in sight,” He gestured to Sirius and James. Josephine laughed and glanced over. To her surprise, she saw Sirius leering at her out of the corner of his eye. He looked away within a millisecond, but there was still something there that shifted something inside her. Had he been looking all this time? 

She would have to report these recent events to her advisors, but she wouldn’t see Marlene and Lily until later this evening. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow sometime, then we can confirm the date of the Hogsmeade thing, okay?” Josephine suddenly recalled Remus’s presence. 

“Yeah, okay.” She smiled at Remus. As he walked away something struck her. How was she going to pretend that she had never been to Hogsmeade before?

 


	14. Fourteen

FOURTEEN

Autumn had come around particularly early, and there was a haze of summer debris floating lazily around in the breeze. Josephine stood alone behind the dilapidated barbwire fence that separated her from a long stretch of rocky ground leading to the Shrieking Shack. The building looked sad. She could find no better word to describe it. It looked on the brink of collapse, even now.

Remus had showed her around Hogsmeade that afternoon, but had left early to finish the homework that was due at the end of the weekend. Josie knew that she had the same responsibilities, but wasn’t quite ready to lock herself in a room with her Charms homework with only a quill to arm herself with. 

Their day had been strangely uneventful, and there was something infectious about the lazy weather that caused her to be completely content at being caught up in her own thoughts. However, this was rudely disturbed by a sharp call from over her shoulder.

“Oi! New girl!” Josie closed her eyes and turned. She knew that voice. That arrogant, drawling slur of words could only be-

“Lucius Malfoy,” She said. He stood a small way up from her, his shock of light blonde hair a contrast against his dark robes. _And dark soul_ , Josephine thought, and grimaced at her bad metaphor. His cronies stood on either side of him, Snape and Bellatrix on one side and Narcissa on the other. The similarities between him and his son were almost as disorienting as the ones between James and Harry.

“Yes,” he seemed impressed, “seems my fame has reached even you these days.” He put his hands in his pockets and lifted his head so he looked down his nose at her. Wizards were ever so more dramatic than muggles. Josephine was not in any way in the mood to talk to any assholes, and decidedly walked back in the direction of the castle. 

“Ah, come on, not up for a little fun?” She could hear Bellatrix shout. She drowned them out and trudged through narrowing streets of Hogsmeade. Sometimes Josephine forgot that these people would grow up to be killers, and it made her uneasy about turning her back on them. A shiver ran it’s way down her spine.  

Back at the castle, the warmth of the Gryffindor common room enveloped her, and she sighed. The marauders were suspiciously absent, so Josephine went upstairs and collapsed on her bed. Fucking hell. Suddenly all her troubles collapsed on her, and the future loomed over her like a storm cloud. Seeing Lucius and his friends had just reminded her of that. She felt determined to change something of this, change history, change the world. It would spare lives, create a whole new cosmos, but it seemed so beyond her. Josephine Swire, all on her own. Of all her problems, above everything else, her loneliness was absolute. At some point during these disconnected series of thoughts she fell asleep. 

She woke up bedraggled, still in her uniform with her legs hanging limply over the edge of the bed. She got up and looked around at the room and saw that it was getting annoyingly dark outside. “Shit.” She croaked, and got up. After straightening herself out, taking off her shoes and fixing her hair, she found herself walking down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room. There was a fire in the grate, and about a dozen people in various collapsed positions around the room. The flickering light shone on the Marauders in their usual places. Remus looked too small for the armchair as he sat cross-legged, his nose in a book. Lily sat uncomfortably sandwiched between Marlene and James on the couch while Marlene looked overwhelmingly smug, and Josephine smiled to herself. Peter sat with his back against the stone of the fireplace, his usual look of uneasiness on his face. Whether that was because his homework was overdue or because he felt imminent danger, no one could ever tell. Then, there was Sirius, lying on his stomach, his feet dangling dangerously close to the crackling flames as his head buried into his elbows. 

“Where have _you_ been?” Marlene exclaimed as she sat up. The rest of the group came to casual attention, all except for Sirius, who didn’t move. “You missed dinner, you goose.” Marley moved over on the couch, which almost tipped James off the edge on his side. Josephine waved her hand as if to say, “don’t bother”, and sat herself down on the ground.

“I was doing my Charms,” She lied as she lay back and balanced her stocking feet on Marlene’s lap.

“Bullshit.” 

“ _Any_ way,” James jumped in (he still hadn’t completely forgiven her for the Remus incident), “So then she told me I had a detention for showing disrespect to a speaker! Just because I wasn’t listening to his stupid story about his boring wand cleaners… The only thing that would make that class interesting would be if Bertie Bott himself came back from the dead and tap-danced on McGonagall’s desk…” James’s voice slowly faded into the background as Josephine looked around at the students’ faces. The soft strokes of light from the fireplace made them seem like part of the landscape. Hogwarts was nothing but an empty shell without its students, all in what they thought was the prime of their life. 

She lay back on the ground, her legs still elevated on the couch as she thought some more. She was sick of thinking, though. She thought all the time. In her sea of emotions, hitting like a tide against the edges of her head, she felt like she was drowning. Josie was about to close her eyes again when Sirius bumped her with his shoulder.

“Saw you out the window this afternoon,” He mumbled as he looked at her with hooded eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Since when do you talk with Malfoy and his idiots?” It wasn’t accusatory as much as curious. 

“Oh, I don’t. Just bumped into them. It was a one-sided conversation, really.”

“Oh.” There was a pause. “Okay.” 

 


	15. Fifteen

FIFTEEN

Even though she felt like she needed to, Josie told no one about the fragmented conversation she had with Sirius that night. It confused her to no end – one minute he had been scrutinizing her with something akin to dislike, and now he was interested in holding a conversation with her? It wasn’t even a conversation, she admitted. But it was, in some ways, better than the near-shouting match they had in the secret passageway. Besides, he was hardly her priority at the moment.

By now, Josephine felt like she was finally comfortable in her surroundings. She had built her social and physiological foundations and was now ready to start on her house. It was the lunch hour on a Thursday – she had taken a sneaky trip to the kitchens in her study period and was now wandering through the thigh-high grass of the meadow leading up to the Owlery. She was finishing up the last few bites of her almond tart as she approached the humble looking tower. 

Josephine Swire used to take regular trips to the Owlery, to send letters back to her family. There was really no reason for her trip to the Owlery – she had no one to send a letter to now – except for that she felt a messed-up kind of nostalgia. With everyone in the Great Hall for lunch, the grounds were strangely deserted, and she could almost forget she was not in 1995 anymore. The grounds looked almost exactly the same as they would 20 years from now. Josie stretched her fingers down and let the dry tips of the grass tickle her palms. She reached the tower, and, feeling delightfully warm in her thickest jersey, entered the open entranceway. 

There was, as expected, no one around, so she took her time wandering around. She caught herself judging the flock of owls, as if she was choosing one to carry her non-existent letter. She sighed and stopped in front of a large brown owl. He had intelligent eyes, and though he was big, he was lean and looked fast. They had a staring contest for a couple of minutes until she gave in.

“Fine.” She let go of the breath she was holding. “Hop on.” She held out her forearm for the owl to perch on. Josie carried the bird up to the highest level of the Owlery, where the dilapidated writing desk lived. She thought all the while about who-the-hell she would write to. She sat down, and the owl glided from her arm onto the nearest perch. Everyone she “knew” was here. Except for… She picked up some ink on the quill and started writing.

 

_18_ _ th _ _September 1975_

_Dear Mr. Kalt,_

 

_It’s been about a month (actually, strangely, exactly a month… I promise I didn’t plan this) since you helped me through what was (I’m sure) the most bizarre case you’ve been on. I never properly thanked you for this, and I think it’s about time. Professor Dumbledore has settled me in well here (as he may or may not have told you)._

 

_I hope you haven’t been working yourself too hard in the absence of your superior, and I’m sure Lance has been helping you out with some of the workload._

 

_Thank you for your time, concerns and efforts,_

_Josephine P. Swire_

 

Josie sighed and leaned back in her chair. Sure, it was neat, polite and a little formal, but the letter gave her closure, and that was the most important part. Just as she was folding it up, she heard the far away murmur of students, and realized that they must have been released for lunch. She put her neat letter into a neat envelope and as she was tying it to the tawny owl’s leg when suddenly she heard fast footsteps slap their way up the stone staircase. She turned around to see James running backwards into the room, puffing and clearing his throat. 

“Um, hello,” she said curiously.

“Hey,” he said in passing, seemingly not fully realizing her presence. He straightened up and ran to the window, leaning out of it precariously.

“What are you gonna do now, you little tossers?!” He bellowed, laughing, and held up both his middle fingers, waving them around in the air obnoxiously.

“James?” Josephine said, rising from her chair with the owl on her forearm. He turned around, eyebrows raised. 

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing?”

“Running from some first years.” 

Josie walked to stand beside him, peering out of the window to spot some little boys yelling bravado before running away through the high grass. _Boys_ , Josephine thought, amused.

“Right then,” She laughed, and turned to see James already halfway out of the room again. “Hey, wait!” She said, hopping awkwardly forward, and her owl squawked in complaint. James stopped. It was rare to find him alone. This could be her chance.

“Look, I know I’m not your favourite person in the world right now, but I just wanted to apologize for any damage that I’ve done. I have Remus’s best interests in mind, trust me, and-”

“There you go again!” James interjected, not unkindly. He had a look of frustration as he flailed his arms a bit. “‘Trust me, trust me’…” He sighed and trailed off. “I’m not one to look for conflict, Josephine, so I don’t want to make something of this as long as you give me a _reason_ to trust you. It’s all very well saying it, but…” He paused. “Merlin, I sound like a bloody girl!” Josephine laughed brokenly. 

“Okay.” She said.

“Okay?” James said, surprised. 

“Give me a chance and I’ll show you that you can trust me. I won’t tell anyone about Remus’s secret, and I’ll cover you for Saturday’s full moon.” She said it factually, but internally, she was pleading. A small smile broke out on James’s face, and Josephine exhaled heavily. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath.

“Okay, let me send this owl and we can go back to the common room,” She quickly scribbled the address of the Ministry of Magic on the envelope (not neatly at all), and sent the bird off. 

 

They strolled back to the castle, making, not small talk, but more of a medium-ground talk, while organizing a time at which all the Marauders could meet regarding the full moon. The day would be Friday, the place, the boy’s common room, and the time, quarter to two in the morning (the exact time all the lights went off in the castle, and it was certain everyone would be asleep). 

 


	16. Sixteen

SIXTEEN

The rest of Thursday afternoon went uneventfully, and so that evening Josephine sat with Lily and Marlene on Lily’s bed. They ate Writhing Pythons (a sweet gum that had become Josie’s favourite snack from the seventies) and listened to Marlene’s new EP on the record player in the corner.

            “You know,” Marlene said in between bites of her python as it squirmed in her fingers, “They may be called the Foaming Thirteen but I think they can sing pretty well, considering.” They were waiting for that night’s Astronomy lesson, which didn’t help to get Josie’s mind off the full moon. She was starting to feel a bit queasy about it.

            “Ugh, Marlene, can’t you eat the head first?” Lily said, her face twisting while she looked at the fat snake struggling in her friend’s hand. Josie laughed.

            “It’s not really alive, Lil,” She said.

            “I know…”

            “Ugh, okay, so you know that little Hufflepuff boy, the one with the wiry arms?” Marley said suddenly.

            “The one that was eyeing you up at lunch today?” Lily said, reaching for some more sweets.

            “What?” Josie said suddenly. She had missed something.

            “Yeah, that’s the one. We were sitting at the Gryffindor table and Lily kept staring over my shoulder,” Marlene explained, “So I looked, and it was that guy, staring at me while he was eating!”

            “Flattering or creepy?”

            “Definitely creepy!”

            “Oh no.” Josephine sympathized.

            “What are you going to do?” Lily said, mouth full.

            “Don’t know. I think I’ll just lay low and see if it happens again,” Marlene said the sentence quickly as the chorus of the song approached.

            “Mm, and then you’ll talk to him?”

            “Yup.” And with that she broke into song, already remembering the words on the third spin of the album. Lily rolled her eyes and smiled.

            “What ‘bout you, Josie? You have any drama with the lads?” She said jokingly while Marlene wailed on. Josephine laughed.

            “Hardly!” She exclaimed.

            “Sure, sure…” Lily said, pretending to believe her.

            “No seriously. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t admired people before, or whatever, but come on!” Josie flung an arm out. “How am I supposed to have any ‘drama with the lads’ when there are people like you around?” She gestured toward the two girls. Marlene abruptly stopped singing.

            “What are you on about?”

            “Well, you’re not exactly ugly are you? Or dumb? Or whatever else boys value these days?” She paused, but the girls were quiet, so she continued. “I’m not saying I envy you, Marley, for being perved at by a third year, but at least you’re admired. And Lily, the only reason no one has picked you up already is because no one wants to cross Potter!” She sighed. She knew she was being stupid.

            “I’m sorry.” Josephine said quietly, and laughed a bit. She almost felt the bizarre urge to walk out dramatically before her friends could respond, but this wasn’t a T.V. sitcom. “You know what? It _is_ stupid. Just forget I ever said anything.” She gave a weak smile and looked both girls in the face. They said nothing, but Marlene held up the bag of Writhing Pythons for Josie to grab one. She did.

            “Thanks,” She said, and meant it. Josephine ate the head first, and then she remembered. “Actually I did have some drama with the lads.”

            “Really?” Lily’s voice was gentle, but optimistic.

            “Yeah, Sirius is a bit of an odd one,” She said, swallowing before continuing. “He was being all brooding for a while and then suddenly we had this really bizarre conversation.”

            “Mm, I had an ear open for that one,” Marlene confirmed. Josie gasped melodramatically.

            “No! I call eavesdropper!” Marlene laughed and gently nudged Josephine with her stocking foot.

            “What happened?” Lily asked, laughing too.

            “He was just suddenly strangely curious about the people I surround myself with. Probably just something to do with a prank, he was asking about Lucius and his friends…”

            “Oh,” Lily Evans said meaningfully and looked at Josephine from under uneven eyebrows.

            “It’s probably nothing, boys act weird all the time,” She answered, dismissing it.

            “It’s true, it’s true,” Marlene said matter-of-factly. “I saw some boys in their study hour playing this completely ridiculous game, I-” Abruptly, Lily straightened up from her reclined position. She looked at her watch and groaned.

            “Tell us on the way, Marley. Time for astronomy!” She sang the last word out in an absurdly fake opera voice and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Marlene put away her EP in an overly careful manner before presenting her hand out to Josie in the fashion of a dreamy Disney prince. She looked at her with a mischievous smile and said privately,

            “Who cares about boys anyway? We all know you’re awesome and that’s all that matters.” Josephine smiled back at her and jumped up.

            “Abso-fucking-lutely,” She replied proudly.

            “What the hell did you just say?” Marlene joked, teasing her ineloquence.

            “Oh do shut up,” Josephine Swire said scoldingly. However, she knew all too well what Marlene’s words did mean to her, and she appreciated them so profusely that she could hardly smile enough.

 


	17. Seventeen

SEVENTEEN

After a mildly challenging climb, bags in tow, Josephine, Lily and Marlene filed into the Astronomy tower – a circular room with a glistening glass dome set upon it like the beady black eye of a fly. The rest of the class was already seated around the center monolith, where Professor Sinistra sat, with her head craned to the sky.

“Come in, come in,” She beckoned in her strong Scottish accent. “Class hasn’t officially begun yet but I’d like to get started. Sit down, sit down, sit down… Choose a partner,” She spoke rapidly, repeating words and letting the syllables roll out of her mouth like the goose from ‘Charlotte’s Web’. “Actually, Marlene, go with Peter, he’s not got a partner… and you two – over there. Off you go,” She gestured toward the far side, where there was a gap in the alignment, and Lily led Josie to sit down, picking their way over stray limbs. 

Finally Professor Sinistra took a breath and leaned back, her mass of red hair ebbing down her back.

“Today is the best day for viewing the stars – cloudless, warm, and still, and thus _that_ is what we shall do!” She flicked up an index finger. “I know it is slightly basic but it is an opportunity we cannot miss. Everyone get our your starsheets!” There was a rustle as everyone complied.

“Enthusiastic as always,” Josie joked to Lily. They both laughed quietly, but curiously Josephine heard a third response from behind them. As she discreetly looked back she saw James and Sirius were seated there. She smiled as Sirius caught her eye.

Professor Sinistra kept setting out instructions, but all they really had to do was plot out what they saw and then check the accuracy for homework. It was the kind of mindless work that Josephine enjoyed on a Thursday night. Soon they were left to work in their partners, Professor Sinistra looking dreamily up into the sky. She really loved her job, Josie supposed.

Suddenly she felt a presence to her right and she saw James leaning back to catch her attention.

“Why, hello,” Josephine said in a fake regal voice.

“Sh!” James hissed unexpectedly. He gestured toward an infinitely absorbed Lily, who wouldn’t have noticed if a muggle helicopter landed right next to her at that given moment. Josie looked back at James, unamused.

“What do you want?”

“I’ll give you a galleon if you’ll swap partners with me.” 

There was a pause.

“Throw in a pack of Bertie Bott’s and I’ll do it.” Josie said. James’s eyes widened and he pushed up his glasses.

“Ah, ah, ah, Josie,” He said warningly, “You _owe_ me, remember.”

He thrust a hand through his hair and eyed her down until she submitted. 

“Yeah, I do,” She agreed finally, sighing.

“Done.” James said decidedly, and they swapped places. Josephine was still sorting out her things when Sirius greeted her.

“How do you do?” He said mockingly, in the same pompous voice that Josephine used just before. They both laughed. Apparently they were once again on good terms.

 

“Hey,” Josephine said abruptly, pointing uselessly with her quill, “That star’s called Sirius!”

“Yeah it is,” Sirius confirmed, as if he had heard it a thousand times before. He probably had, except now there was a smile in his voice. “My whole family is named like that.”

“Really?’ Josephine said, intent. She realized she didn’t know much about him at all.

“Yup. My middle name is Orion,” He laughed at her interest.

“Like the belt?”

“Like the belt.”

“That’s cool,” She dubbed.

“It’s actually the dog star,” Sirius added.

“No way!” Josephine grinned. “That’s a little ironic, don’t you think?”

Sirius looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Uh…”  
Shit. Oh shit. Josephine cursed wildly in her head for letting another thing slip. Of course he didn’t know what she was talking about. The marauders didn’t become animagi until 6th Year. There they were, finally getting along and her days of future past had caught up with her again. Strike three and you’re out.

“Um, never mind,” An awkward silence hung, suspended in between them and Josephine tore her eyes away to study her palms. _Change the subject, quick!_ “Anyway, I’m jealous. My name’s so perfectly ordinary,” It came out slightly rushed but Sirius took the bait.

“Uh, what’s your name again?” Sirius joked.

“Oh, shut up.”

 

Josephine knew that if she hadn’t pulled such an awkward stunt with revealing that she knew about Remus, they would both be acting differently. In that moment they sat, Josephine looking at Sirius in the moments he wasn’t paying attention, all the while thinking about how the conversation could have gone.

 

_“Anyway, I’m jealous. My name’s so perfectly ordinary.”_

_“No, I like that about you,” He said. His response caught Josephine off guard._

_“What, that I’m ordinary?”_

_“No, that your name’s ordinary. It makes people expect ordinary things from you, when they’re actually looking at one of the most extraordinary people in this school.”_

_“Hm,” She said shortly. Then, after a while, “Sirius Orion Black, are you flirting with me?”_

_Sirius whipped out a grin, raised his eyebrows and said, “Maybe.”_

_“You rascal,” She reprimanded._

 

Not that Josephine would have minded much, she realized. Her mental concoction might have been fiction, but perhaps her feelings weren’t. Josephine couldn’t believe that in the beginning mists of the war storm, she was sitting there falling for Sirius Black. Unexpectedly, a laughed escaped her lips. 

 


	18. Eighteen

EIGHTEEN

Friday was slow and boring, made even more dragged out by the fact that Josephine was waiting for quarter to two that night since half past eight that morning. But, finally it came, and Josephine didn’t feel any less nervous. She heard Lily, Marlene, and Dorcas’s even, deep breaths and dubbed it safe to escape to the Marauder’s meeting. A total of three floorboards squeaked on her journey to the boy’s common room, but the Gryffindors stayed asleep and Josephine reached the door safely. There was a sharp click as she opened it and she was met with darkness.

“Guys….?” She whispered. “It’s me.”

“Yeah, we can see that,” An obnoxiously loud voice said from behind her. She jumped and saw James push past her into the room with a six-pack of something in one hand. He kicked the light on with his foot on his way past. He was followed by the rest of the marauders, Sirius on the tail end, who ushered Josephine in and closed the door behind her. 

“Shouldn’t we be whispering or something?” Josie said at a normal volume, trusting the school’s most notorious tricksters with such matter as mid-night rendezvous.

“Nah, we have a silencing spell round here.” James gestured, and opened a bottle with a clink. 

“Oh, cool…” Josephine looked around the room, eventually just collapsing down on a spare piece of floor (which was hard to find in the Marauder’s sleeping quarters, it had to be said). Remus sat cross-legged on what must have been his bed, Peter on his, and the rest of them on the floor.

“First order of business,” James announced, “is of course, cider.” 

“Of course,” Josie agreed incredulously. 

“Cider,” James said as he handed a bottle to Remus, “Cider, cider, cider… and, cider.” And so soon everyone in the room had a stomach-warming drink in hand. Sirius raised his bottle and they each took their first sip.

“Second order of business?” Sirius prompted.

“Mm,” James said, swallowing. “The second order of business is the Excuse.”

“Okay, so we’ve used the ‘my cousin’s getting married’...” Peter said, taking the cue and reading from a little black book. “The ‘my sister’s graduating’, the ‘my mum’s sick’…” He ticked each one off with his quill as he went along. The other boys nodded along knowingly.

“I actually had a bit of an idea in double potions today,” James said when Peter had finished his little list.

“Oh lord,” Sirius responded.

“Yes!” James said triumphantly. “Remus, your grandmother’s coming to visit this weekend.”

“She is?” Peter said innocently to Remus.

“No Pete, he means that’s the excuse,” Sirius said.

“Oh.” 

Josephine laughed. She sat with her back against the bedpost of an unmade bed, balancing her cider on her knee.

“Your grandmother’s coming to visit after years of not seeing you. She’s coming from miles and miles, visiting you from her home in…” James ran out of steam and his finger stayed poised in midair as his mouth tried to form words. “In bloody… shit, I don’t know… from…”

“Madagascar?” Sirius offered, entertained.

“France?” Peter added.

“New Zealand?” 

“Atlantis?”

“Uganda?”

“Canada?”

“Switzerland?” Josephine said.

“Yes, Switzerland!” James pointed at Josie. “And Pete, you do realize Atlantis isn’t an actual place, right?”

“Yeah, well, New Zealand isn’t either,” Peter said begrudgingly.

“Wait, guys,” Remus finally spoke, “I don’t have a grandmother in Switzerland. Saying that my mum was sick was bad enough… But making up a whole new person? Can’t we think of anything else?” He pleaded. He twisted his sweating bottle of cider in his hands, not meeting the eyes of his friends.

“I dunno, mate, I’m feeling the Swiss grandma,” Sirius said after taking a swig of cider. It was obvious that Sirius knew exactly what he had just said, and the group sniggered.

“Yeah, I have to agree,” James said, disregarding the fact that it was his idea, and raising his hand straight up to the ceiling. Sirius did the same, and Josie put her hand up too. Everyone looked at Peter, and he eventually put his hand up last.

Remus sighed, but he was smiling. “Fine.”

“Good!” James exclaimed, delighted. “Third order of business… The Plan.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I know New Zealand is a real place... And, to prove it, I live there! :)


	19. Nineteen

NINETEEN

It was two o’clock in the morning on Saturday night and Josephine Swire lay reclined on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room, watching the portrait hole. It wasn’t the offensive position she had imagined when she offered to help the Marauders on the full moon, she had to admit, but she shouldn’t have expected better. She was still half a stranger to them, and it was asking enough for them to just trust her. The rest of Friday night had gone pretty smoothly – there was still one cider left in the six-pack when they had finished each of theirs, so they passed it around, sharing while they went over the roles of each person in the plan.

“Usually we leave one person behind in the common room to keep watch and cover for the absences,” James had explained to Josie, “But now that you’re here, that would be a good job for you.”

Meanwhile, Remus would be upstairs in the Shrieking Shack, alone, because even with his friends’ determination, they weren’t stupid enough to enter the territory of a mindlessly wild werewolf on the full moon. Sirius, James and Peter would be at strategic positions surrounding the Shrieking Shack and varying distances to the castle. They had shards chipped off of the two-way mirrors that James and Sirius were given on leather strings around their necks, not big enough to see each other with, but big enough to use to talk to each other. 

They each had wolfs bane torches with them, for the occurrence that Remus may break out of the Shrieking Shack and try to storm toward the castle. They would light them and try to steer him away. However, this was a near last priority option, as the light would attract the attention of whoever would be awake at this hour (“there’s always one”).

Josephine was impressed. She hadn’t thought that the Marauders would have gone to such extensive measures, but then she reminded herself that they had been doing this for four or five years now. She was just dropping off to sleep, lulled by the crackle of the remaining fire, when the portrait hole squeaked open. It rebounded against the wall and the silhouette of a human form was edged out in the darkness.

“Josie! Josie, quick help me,” James hissed, clearly strained for some reason. Josephine jumped up at the urgency of his voice and saw that James was carrying Peter over his shoulder. 

“Holy shit,” Josie breathed. They were both covered with blood, and half of Peter’s shirt was missing, edged with frayed rips. There were bruises on his face, in a still-red slash on his left cheek, and his left eye was swollen shut. His skin was pale and his lips were red with the blood he was coughing up. As far as Josephine could tell, Peter was still unconscious, but he was moaning. She held the portrait hole open for James.

“No, no, we can’t put him down here, it’ll get blood everywhere and I’ve got to get back out there, we managed to knock Remus out for a while, poor guy, but Sirius is out there alone, and I don’t have much time-” His voice rasped out the words, his voice dry, and despite his admirable courage, James was close to a breakdown.

“James, calm down, calm down.” Josie whispered. “Let’s get Peter to the hospital wing quickly and then you can run back out, I’ll take care of the rest.” She gently turned him around and they travelled as quickly as they could while staying quiet. Josie scouted the way and motioned to James when it was clear, and they were at the archway of the hospital wing within ten minutes. Josephine knocked quietly on the door, and said to James, “You should go now, I got this.” She looked solemnly at the boy and James nodded. There was no time for ‘thanks’, and their mutual understanding was enough.

The door cracked open just as James ran off and the young head of Madame Pomfrey escaped the crack, her eyes immediately shooting to Peter on the floor.

“Oh Merlin,” She said quietly, but in a concerned way. And then, wasting no time: “Come, help me bring him in… I wasn’t expecting you until later tonight, and I was hoping not until morning. If I’m honest, I rather regret your questionable company if you keep bringing such carnage in your wake.”

 

Josephine stood at the bedsides of Remus and Peter the next morning, leaving the two chairs to Sirius and James. Remus pulled together his eyebrows and Peter bit his lips, both somehow still looking troubled even in sleep. Josie didn’t want to ask, neither did she want to know how the accident happened, and besides that, it didn’t feel important anymore. 

Madame Pomfrey, who had been warned of Josie’s level of knowledge regarding Remus’s lycanthropy, offered tea to the trio. They all declined, preferring the apathy of silence and tastelessness. The bruises on Peter’s face had calmed with Madame Pomfrey’s care, and his eye wasn’t swollen anymore, just red. The bed sheets safely covered the angry gashes in his chest. Remus was a little better than him – he had a few deep scratches, but his ailment was mostly fatigue… _and guilt_ , Josephine thought morosely, but not unsympathetically.

“It hasn’t gotten this bad in a while,” James whispered. Josie realized she hadn’t completely taken into consideration how bad Remus’s condition was. Seeing the violent damages on Peter had opened her eyes to that respect. 

She was starting to consider going back up to the dorm room. Lily and Marlene were sure to be wondering where she was, and she was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, while the boys had gotten cleaned up since then. Besides, she felt awkward standing in the midst of their contemplative misery. 

Just as she was about to announce her leave, the doors of the hospital wing opened to reveal Dumbledore, who walked with a small smile toward the group. James and Sirius followed his steps with their sight, but didn’t say anything. Dumbledore brought out from the folds of his robes the largest box of licorice wands that Josephine had ever seen. 

“Mister Lupin’s favourite, I believe,” He broke the silence, setting the box down on the bedside table. No one responded, so he continued. “I’m terribly sorry to be bothering you with such terrible timing…” He nodded toward Sirius and James in turn, “But, alas, Miss Swire, would you care to accompany me in my office? We have something to discuss.”

 


	20. Twenty

TWENTY

Dumbledore’s office was messier than usual. His desk was still organized, but that was the only neat part of the room. There was a new worktable on the back elevation of the space, covered in papers, inkpots, gears, bolts, books and springs. The floor surrounding it was just as unfortunate, and the bookshelves looked haphazard with their irregular absences. It felt unusual for Josephine to think of Dumbledore as such an operational person, but apparently that was what he was. He followed into the room behind her, closing the door with a careful click.

Josie decided to sit down after a moment of hesitancy, and found the chair that usually sat facing Professor Dumbledore’s bureau.

“I trust you’ve settled in here nicely by now,” Dumbledore said with a polite nod as he sat down.

“Yes, thank you,” Josephine replied, doing the same. She knew she wasn’t there for polite conversation with the headmaster, but she played along as she had only trust and respect for the man, especially after he was kind enough to let her stay and study at Hogwarts.

“As you well know,” Dumbledore continued lightly (he always sounded like he was telling a secret), “A ‘time turner’ device, as you have mentioned, does not exist in the present.” 

The present, Josie noted. Not “in this time,” or “1975”, but the _present_ … Because it was, for Dumbledore, and for everyone else, including Josephine. She nodded.

“I have been very interested in solving this problem. I have done some research and put thought into the workings of such an item, but, I can safely say that I am not up to the task of completing this on my own.” Josie wondered what type of research you would do for an object that doesn’t exist yet.

“Therefore I have invited one of my old friends, Phillius Temporalis to assist me with this challenge. Yet, I’m sure you understand our difficulties, as we are trying to create an object we know next to nothing about.” He paused and studied her through the filter of his wise spectacles. 

“That’s where I come in?”

“Indeed.” He smiled. “It has come to my attention that you are quite the talented artist.” He looked at her again, expecting some sort of answer. Josephine inhaled sharply.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry about that! I was listening, I promise, I just think better when I’m drawing and it’s a bad habit-”

“Miss Swire.” Professor Dumbledore stopped her, not with a raised voice, but a raised hand. “Perhaps it is best I do not know how that story ends.” Josephine flushed red and sagged in her chair, realizing her awkward outbreak.

“Uh-um, yes, perhaps. Do continue,” She bit her lip, almost as if to keep her mouth closed.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you could help Phillius and I by creating a few technical drawings to as much detail as you can recall.” 

“Of course!” Josie nodded as she replied. “Anything that would help... I mean, I don’t know how much I’ll remember, but I’ll do my best.”

“And that is all I could ever ask of you,” Dumbledore said conversationally. “Your best. Now, Josephine, I must ask you to clarify your mindset: Do you understand what a great part you have in history because of this?” Josephine didn’t answer. Her brain worked things through for a rough few seconds.

“If Draco Malfoy killed you instead of sending you back in time, the timeline wouldn’t have any chance of changing. By having you here, in 1975, you have the invaluable knowledge that could grant you the power to change the world… and I use the word ‘power’ very carefully, Miss Swire. It is yours to use and to decide what you may.”

Suddenly Josephine felt guilty. She didn’t know where it came from, but the weight of the situation made her feel inadequate and uncomfortable. The anguish of knowing how much the world relied on her good sense overwhelmed her and she broke eye contact with Dumbledore.

“However,” He continued after letting this thought sink in, “This does not mean that you must make these decisions alone. Please know that I am open to consult with you anything regarding this rather serious issue, and that you are allowed to and able to enlighten anyone else that you think could, would and should help you. That part is completely your concern.” Josephine nodded, unable to speak.

“And, if I may?” Dumbledore’s cautious words commanded Josephine’s attention and she looked up from her lap. 

“I hope that this goes without saying, but be _very_ careful.”

 

There was something to the seriousness of Dumbledore’s voice that stayed with Josephine after the meeting, and she decided to make her technical drawings her first priority from the moment that she closed the door behind her. A lot more weighed on her than she anticipated.

 


	21. Twenty One

TWENTY-ONE

It was dark and Josie drew by the flickering light of a lone candle. Her head hurt from fatigue and focusing so close on the parchment for so long, but her crazed motivation drove her to continue pushing ink over paper. She shunned herself continuously for forgetting possibly important design elements of the time turner. She had seen at least a thousand of them before Malfoy went in and suddenly made her uncomfortably familiar with one. She had walked along a whole wall of them with Neville. Neville. Goddamnit. Josie hoped he got out safely. It would happen twenty years from now, yet somehow Josie still felt like it was happening exactly then, as she sat on her own in the Gryffindor common room. 

Eventually she dropped her quill, closing her eyes and finally laying her heavy head in her hands. Her freezing fingers entwined in her hair and she pushed her palms into her eyes as she felt the first tears shedding. It was probably just stress, exhaustion… frustration. But there were things heavier weighing on her heart, and she knew now more than ever that they were the lives of everyone around her. 

Unexpectedly, she picked up the soft shuffles of bare feet padding over carpet. She lifted her head to see Sirius Black looking at her from the stair landing, his wand lifted with blinding light… _at least, for this hour of night_ , Josie surmised. He was wearing what Josephine presumed were his pajamas – a black shirt with a faded Batman logo and thin sweatpants.

“Stylish.” Josephine commented. It came out soft, strained and uneven, and she soon realized she had lost her voice.

“Check yourself, Squeaky.” He shot back. She looked down and realized she also sported pajamas – a _Little Mermaid_ top and a pair of bright pink shorts. Not only that, but to keep her legs warm she had her knee-high woolly socks on too. She sighed and collapsed back in her chair. 

“What are you doing up this late anyway?” He continued calmly. Josephine shrugged. Her eyes felt dry and she pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” She couldn’t resist replying in the end. 

When she opened her eyes again, Sirius had moved across the room and was now standing next to her, looking at her drawings. Her heart struck against her ribs for a second, as she was shocked into action. She tensed and threw her arms over her work, gathering it together and flipping it over so it faced the wood of the table. She didn’t look back at Sirius to catch his reaction, but she almost didn’t need to. His surprise and, indeed, curiosity, emanated from him like a fourth year’s unchecked body odor. Josie released the papers with the forceful unclasp of her hands. She breathed in sweet, painfully chilly air breezing in from the forgotten open window and sighed deeply. 

“I’m sorry,” She said, standing to lean over and close the window before looking back at him. He was an arms-length away from her, hair messed up and obscuring his vision. Her eye level was at his collarbone and she felt intimidated as she tilted her head up to observe him properly. His eyes were not quite awake, still half closed, and, strangely, he was smiling. Unfortunately, he stayed annoyingly silent.

“Oh, stop looking so bloody smug.” She blew out the candle and attempted to walk past Sirius. His arm reached out and stopped her from continuing, a soft nudge with his forearm across her waist and his hand on her opposite hip. It only lasted a second but the warm physical contact sent goose bumps running up and down Josephine’s own arms. 

“What were you drawing?” He asked conversationally, with only the glowing tip of his wand separating them. His eyebrows were raised with expectation. Josephine sighed.

“Just some stuff,” she said lamely. “Secret stuff.”

“Mm, secret stuff,” he nodded knowingly. He looked at her through the corner of his evil eye. “My favourite kind,” he said deviously before snatching the papers, and, with amazing agility, lunging over and behind the couch while Josephine remained standing where she was, mouth open and chest empty of air.

“What the f-” her squeaking voice exclaimed. She rushed over to the couch and saw Sirius already sitting on the floor with the papers strewn out before him. She didn’t know what she was expecting. 

 

Eventually, after a moment of stunned silence, she resolved that she couldn’t do anything to reverse anything, and sat on the couch behind Sirius, looking over his shoulder as he flipped through different technical drawings. With an adept flick of her wand, she started a new fire in the grate and sat back as she waited for a response.

“What _is_ it?” he finally asked. Josephine smiled. 

“A time-travelling device,” she answered, plain and simple. After all the lies, it felt good to tell the truth for once.

“That’s amazing,” Sirius said, sounding genuinely awestruck. He cleared his throat. “I mean, it’s all right.” Josephine smiled. He turned around, and this time Josie looked down at him. “Does it work?”

“Don’t know. I’m pulling my hair out just getting all the components listed and fitting in the same area,” She said. Abruptly, Sirius looked at his watch.

“Did you know,” He said after adopting an expression that indicated that he was working something out, “that we’ve been awake for almost fifty hours straight now?” They were quiet for a few seconds as Josie’s brain, numbed with weariness, let that sink in.

“Shit… That’s a long time,” Josephine replied ineloquently. “Why aren’t we asleep?” Sirius laughed softly.

“I don’t know.”

 

But they didn’t go to sleep. Only ten minutes later Josephine found herself looking into Sirius’s face from a mere thirty centimetres away. They both had lost the strength to stay sat up and had collapsed so that Sirius lay on his back looking up at Josie, who lay facing downwards, her body relaxed completely as only the top part of her face peeked over the edge of the couch cushions.

“What’s your biggest fear?” Josie asked randomly, as was the norm at the early, early hours of morning. Sirius ‘um’ed for a while and as he focused toward the ceiling, Josephine got a good look at his face. There was the hint of teenage stubble creeping up his jawline, but it was not unflattering, and his dark eyebrows casted shadows over his cheeks.

“Living up to my family name,” he said to her. Their eyes met and she sent sympathy in telepathic waves, as it was getting harder and harder to talk in her drained state. She wouldn’t know what to say anyway. “What about you?” He asked, apparently completely comfortable.

“Oblivion,” she replied without hesitation, trying to overcome her waning voice. “Complete oblivion. I once had this nightmare where there was nothing around me at all, it was just black and I was endlessly floating, senselessly. I couldn’t smell anything, see anything, feel, taste, hear… nothing. Just, utter nothingness.” She saw Sirius’s eyebrows draw together as she fell quiet.

“Fuck,” he said appreciatively. Josephine let out a discordant laugh. “Hey, you know what we should do tomorrow?” He suddenly asked, the use of the word “we” causing Josephine a small heart spasm. She shook her head in a small movement.

“…me neither, I’ve just forgotten.” Josephine couldn’t help laughing again as Sirius broke into a lion’s yawn.

“Let’s just sleep, you’ll remember in the morning.” She mumbled.

“It _is_ morning.”

“Don’t be cheeky.”

 


	22. Twenty Two

TWENTY-TWO

It was a Sunday and Josephine Swire strolled through a sun-lit courtyard. The stone archways casted shadows that reached just to Josie’s eyes, bathing her body in mid-afternoon light while shrouding the rest. She had a terrible headache from her lack of sleep the night before, but she knew Peter and Remus were surely doing worse. She hadn’t seen James since, and she had only glimpsed Sirius at breakfast. There was a temporary rift of communication between the marauders – a mark left as a bitter downfall to their great loyalty. That was how Josephine found herself on her own, walking to meet Lily and Marlene in the library. There was a note left stuck to her forehead when she woke up from her night on the couch.

 

“Saw Sirius leave –

dish out the details later.”

 

Then, a scribbled time and location followed by both of their names. She was so tired. Not just physically though, although her muscles were aching from dragging Peter across the castle and then staying cramped up on the couch for a night. No, her biggest exhaustion was mental. She felt like she was disintegrating, having to rebuild herself. Everything was suddenly stripped away from her and a giant weight was dropped on her shoulders. The initial high of realizing her crush on Sirius Black had fallen away to contained despair, and the sheer ridiculousness of it dawned. How could a boy distract her when the whole world depended on her? That wasn’t even an exaggeration, and it led her to be in a constant state of volatility. 

Josie was shocked back to attention when she walked straight into someone rushing around a corner. 

“Oh!” The boy’s shoulder hit hard against hers, and his books skidded across the floor. “I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed, hopping back out of the way. _Okay, maybe not volatility_ , she thought. What a meager person she was. She was just caving in. Josephine couldn’t recognize the boy, his dark hair acting as a curtain over his face. He didn’t say anything as he went to retrieve his things, so Josie followed him to help.

His hands were long and thin as he scrambled around to gather the parchment, but he showed no acknowledgement of Josephine in any way. He changed balance awkwardly and she caught a glimpse of him in the dappled light.

“Snape?” Josephine breathed in disbelief. Of course! He was in the same year as Harry’s parents. She marveled at this as she stared at her sixteen year old potions professor. His mouth was twitching with his obviously unsettled demeanor. “I’m sorry,” She said again, in a vain attempt to get him to talk. Yet, he stood up, books haphazardly in arms, and made to leave.

“Okay, then. Bye.” Josephine expressed sarcastically, suspicion growing. Could this man have always been this much of a tosser? She stood and made to leave also as the click-clack of Snape’s shoes left her. Then, she heard him speak, a voice under his breath.

“Thanks.” Josie turned, but he was walking away as if nothing was said. She watched him grow further away from her, and eventually she got her voice working too. 

“You’re welcome.” 

 

Lily and Marlene sat with Dorcas Meadowes in the library. Josephine approached them, profoundly bookless and collapsed in the remaining empty seat around the table.

“Miss Meadowes, the candlestick in the library,” She announced. Dorcas gave her a look, but she was smiling. Josephine hadn’t talked to Dorcas much so far that year, as Dorcas mostly hung out with Ravenclaws. _And Lily, actually_ , thought Josephine, _as she apparently was up to the standard of intelligence to be granted her delightful company._ She was all right, really, but the girls liked to tease her. 

“Ugh.” Marlene, across from Josie, collapsed face first into her book. Josephine shot Lily a questioning glance, but the redhead only shook her head.

“Ugh?” Josie imitated. “What’s happened?” Marlene lifted her head back, her honey-coloured hair in a mess over her face. She tried and failed to blow it out of the way, and the sight made Josephine laugh. 

“Sorry I can’t help it,” Josie said in between giggles. A pained look washed over Marlene’s expression and she then started to melodramatically sob, holding her hands up and mouthing, ‘why?’ Lily and Dorcas were laughing too, and eventually the librarian had to come over threaten them with banishment from the library for the next term. The girls decided to leave, Dorcas staying behind to supposedly keep studying.

“What the hell was all that about?” Josephine finally asked them.

“Well, now it seems stupid after all that drama,” Lily snorted. “Remember that third year that was being all creepy around Marley?” she waited until Josephine nodded. “Well, he popped up again.”

“Only this time he has made his presence known,” Marlene took over. “Turns out he wasn’t actually a Hufflepuff, but that’s beside the point. He hid a valentine for me inside my book.” She performed the last sentence with complete articulation, as if Josephine wouldn’t be able to understand unless she paused after every second word.

“But it’s not even valenti-”

“EXACTLY!” Marlene exclaimed, making Lily burst out in laughter.

“So did you find out his name?” Josephine said, fighting to keep in her own laughter.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing!” Marlene had her hands covering her face now, in utter defeat. “Lily, tell her.” Lily was stumbling at the hilarity, but she managed to wheeze out.

“His name is actually Gilderoy Lockhart!”

 


	23. Twenty Three

TWENTY-THREE

The girls traipsed back through the castle, not consciously finding an endpoint, but eventually finding themselves outside, wandering. They chattered all the while, Josie filling the others in on what happened with Sirius the night before. The story was less exciting than Marlene would have liked, Josephine could tell. Even then, there was a warm contentment sitting in Josie’s belly, and she started to think that there was something wrong with her. How was she able to be so hopeless at one point and then be so satisfied the next? The only difference was her company. When she was alone, she felt all her fears. Was that who she really was, or was this? The person laughing and joking along as if the fears didn’t even exist? She pondered this quietly while she let the conversation fall on Marlene and Lily. After a while of just listening to them, she realized that she didn’t actually care all that much.

“Oh guys, I forgot to mention it before, but you know that muggle musician Bruce Springsteen?” Marlene looked at the other two. It was obvious that she was keeping in immense excitement, and Josephine realized she didn’t “forget” to mention it at all. Just waiting for the right moment. They both stayed silent while Josephine bit her lip, and Lily shook her head in a small movement. Josie snorted.

“Ugh!” Marlene expressed, for the second time that afternoon. “You are the worst! Okay, so anyway, he’s this American rock star, he’s ace, I mean a bit mainstream, but you know, he knows his way around a guitar, and his voice isn’t bad, I mean it’s actually quite good-” 

“Marlene,” Lily warned.

“Yeah, okay, so he’s coming to London this November, the eighteenth I think.” Suddenly Marlene ran ahead of them and stopped, facing them. She held intense eye contact with them, a smirk playing at her lips. “So, I was thinking… London doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

“But that’s only a couple months away, wouldn’t all the tickets be sold out already?” Josephine asked.

“Ah!” Marlene raised an index finger. “The _muggle_ tickets are sold out.” She did a hop back and started taking the stone steps down two at a time, forcing the other two to run after her. Josephine felt like her feet only hit the ground twice as they sped down the hill. “We’re going to London, fuckers!” Marlene’s voice cried out like a bird, and for a moment Josephine could have sworn that they were flying.

 

It turned out that Marlene had gotten enough tickets for not just Josephine, Lily and herself, but also for the marauders. Her motive behind this was to get Lily and James together, and she couldn’t invite James without inviting the others too. While Lily seemed rather put out by this, Josephine could only laugh and shake Marlene’s hand in congratulations. They found a spot just by the lake to hunker down, where Lily immediately brought out a book, causing Marlene and Josie to share a knowing look. 

“I’m so happy,” Josephine said as they sat, leaning against a tree. It was a pure statement, and suddenly she felt a little silly. But it seemed that Marlene understood, replying with an equally simple “me too”.  The warmish air enveloped them.

“What are you reading, Evans?” A new voice joined theirs, and Josephine turned to see James Potter blocking their light.

“None of your business.” He was alone, for once. Josie leaned to look past him, and sure enough, Sirius stood a small way off. Remus and Peter too! She felt a grin dominate her face and gave them a wave. Peter was the only one that saw her, but he waved back, smiling. 

“Come on, I’m just curious,” James continued in his usual cocky demeanor.

“Well, I’m busy.” Lily replied in her usual threatening one. It would have been entertaining if it weren’t for the fact that it happened almost daily.

“Hey James!” Marlene interrupted before it could get any worse. “What are you doing on the eighteenth of November?” James looked confused, and before he could answer: “Oh never mind, I remember now. You’ll be in London. With us. At a concert. With Lily.” His expression slowly lightened, and as Lily collapsed her head in her arms, his voice dripped with self-satisfaction.

“Oh, _really_?”

 


	24. Twenty Four

TWENTY-FOUR

The transition from into weekdays was more difficult than Josephine had ever experienced. After the seemingly constant height of drama in the weekend, it felt trivial to be sitting in class again. She had a day of half-heartedly teasing Marlene’s owl in Transfiguration, letting everything go straight over her head in Ancient Runes, and drawing over her theory book in D.A.D.A. She was half asleep as she finally stepped out of her last class of the day, but quickly sobered up. This was the time she would hand in her drawings to Professor Dumbledore.

She now stood facing the heavy wooden door leading into his office, staring it down and trying to gain confidence. She held in her hands the collection of parchment with sketches and writings, stroking the edges with her thumbs. Sighing, she went to knock. Before she could, however, the door swung open, and her curled up hand was left in mid air. Dumbledore’s piercing gaze met her. Curiously, a crackling record was playing quietly, which Josephine found in the left corner of the room, smoothly spinning the Beatles hit “Penny Lane”.

Josephine laughed, and she could feel some of her muscles relax. 

“I didn’t know you were into muggle bands, headmaster,” She said with overstated civility. Dumbledore smiled.

“Oh yes, I go and buy some albums from time to time.” Josie amused herself for a moment trying to imagine how Dumbledore would disguise himself as a muggle. “But, this particular vinyl is quite magical.” 

“Really?” Josephine marveled. “The Beatles? I didn’t know that.” She had no idea Dumbledore had… well… a life.

“Indeed,” he confirmed, smiling at her in such a knowing way that she hoped he didn’t have any undiscovered telepathic abilities. 

* * *

 Josephine didn’t spend more than half an hour in Dumbledore’s office, as after she explained her drawings, he merely said thank you and dismissed her. She felt relief ease her as she made her quiet walk back to Gryffindor tower. It was evening now, and there were very few people wandering the castle anymore. She still had “Penny Lane” in her head, and sang it quietly to herself as she walked. Turning the second to last corner, she stopped dead. There was a haze of light coming from the waning moon, illuminating the stonework, the tapestries and a pair of tangled teenagers, snogging intensely. There was a boy, his back to Josie, kissing a girl against a wall. They said mostly nothing, and the fevered noises of their kisses made Josephine uncomfortable. She was sure that it must have been brilliant for the parties involved, but from the outside it was just awkward. Should she just tiptoe around them? This was closest pathway to the common room.

 _No_ , she decided. She wasn’t going to let some hormonal twits inconvenience her at this hour. She walked normally past them, which worked fine until she passed the window – blocking the moonlight. The boy turned at the disturbance. Sirius Black, his dark hair messier than usual, gave Josephine a massive smirk following his recognition. He raised his eyebrows once, and then continued kissing the girl – a fifth year Hufflepuff with dark blonde hair, covered in freckles. The one that Sirius said Peter fancied from Potions. 

Josephine felt her face gain an expression of complete disgust, but went on her way anyway. What the hell kind of move is that? _Poor Peter_ , Josephine thought. She knew it wasn’t her business, but what did Sirius think he was doing? Was he lying before? Maybe she should tell Peter. Suddenly she missed the indifference from the rest of the day. Eventually, just as she reached the portrait hole, she vowed to put it out of her mind. When she crossed the threshold, she would have forgotten all about it. And she did, for a while. 

* * *

That night, Josephine Swire could not get to sleep. She lay on her back with her sheets arranged perfectly around her, as if someone had made the bed with her still in it. It was pitch black, and she almost forgot whether her eyes were open or closed. Stewing in her thoughts for a little, she got restless.

“Lily,” she hissed in the direction of the bed next to hers. “Lily! You awake?” There was a soft moan. Josephine swished the drapery around the bed back violently, making a terrible noise of metal against metal. “Evans!” she whispered as loudly as she could.

“What?” an eventual response broke the air.

“You awake?” Josie heard a twin noise of curtains being pushed back.

“Obviously,” Lily grumbled. Josephine smiled, sighing. 

“I was just thinking,” Josie started slowly. 

“Yeees?” Lily prompted slowly.

“Why are there only four fifth year Gryffindor girls? I mean, there were only three before I showed up. Why is that?” There was a silence, and Josie heard a rustle of blankets as Lily apparently sat up.

“You really don’t know?” She asked. Josephine shook her head before she realized that Lily couldn’t see her.

“Uh, no.”

“There’s this magical serial killer on the loose at the moment, actually he’s been out for a while now, but he’s gaining power, he’s got a following and everything. They call him- uh- He Who Must Not Be Named… I can’t say his real name.”

“Lord Voldemort?!”

“Shh!” Lily warned. “So you do know, then.”

“Well…” Josephine pondered. “I guess. So parents are too scared to send their children away?”

“Yeah, even though Dumbledore and practically all the rest of the wizarding authorities have confirmed that Hogwarts is probably one of the safest places to be in this situation.” Lily sounded frustrated. “There used to be six of us, but Hestia and Emmeline’s parents didn’t feel safe with them here.” Josephine’s memory sparked when she heard the names. They were two of the members in the first Order of the Phoenix.

“Wow, that’s heavy,” she admitted.

“Yeah,” Lily said simply.

 

“Hey,” Josie said.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to London in November.”

“Ugh!” Lily exclaimed, collapsing back in her bed.

“Remember that Lily? Remember how Marley organized that?” She teased. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.” The curtains closed with a swish. “I’m counting down the days. Minutes, actually. Seconds! It’s going to be great. I hope James wears something nice.” 

 


	25. Twenty Five

TWENTY-FIVE

Josephine felt like getting drunk. She had never gotten drunk in her life, yet she knew this is what she wanted. It was a Thursday morning and she had shadows for eyes. She tried to remember the last time she slept properly as she supported the majority of her weight on the fence. They were outside, at an ungodly hour, it must be said, observing a pair of Midas Leopards.

“I feel like getting drunk,” She announced as the leopards prowled about, their golden pelts shedding in clouds. They had an amusing fascination with Lucius Malfoy, and eyed him threateningly. Malfoy’s friends kept their distance.

“I know what you mean,” Marlene answered. There was a certain peace to the situation as Professor Kettleburn broiled away on the subject of magical felines. 

“Really?” Josie started to sketch a bit. The way the muscles of the beasts rippled beneath their glistening skin really interested her. It was like they were completely fluid. 

“Totally. Let’s do it.”

“Friday night then, we have Astronomy tonight,” Josie reasoned. 

“Deal,” Marlene’s words came out in a thin cloud of condensation.  

* * *

“Okay class, I know it’s Friday afternoon, but just try and concentrate. We’re focusing on theory today, looking back on the subjects we’ve covered in the rest of this week.” Professor Slughorn waved his wand and the chalk started scratching the day’s notes enthusiastically. 

“Ah, poor ole Horace tries his best,” Sirius said, leaning over to Josie, and she mm’ed, agreeing. She hadn’t really directly talked to him since she saw him snogging Peter’s girl, since identified as Aria Whelkes. It wasn’t like she was avoiding him; she was just avoiding the topic. At least, that was what Josephine had been telling herself.

She didn’t even bother paying attention to the notes, either. Instead, she curled her arms up to support her chin and sat looking at her little Midas drawings walking across the paper. It wasn’t quite as close to life as she wanted it, but it was animated. Lily taught her the spell. Josie felt Sirius nudge her, and he handed her a note. Unfolding it, she read. _Cool leopards_ , he had scrawled. 

 _Thanks,_ she wrote back. No more, no less. 

_Heard you were planning on getting smashed tonight._

Josephine sighed. Of course, Marlene would have had to get the alcohol from somewhere.

_Yeah._

_Am I invited?_ He wrote back immediately. Sirius had an incredibly smug expression at that moment, and Josephine couldn’t help but smile a little, no matter how much it made her hate herself. Before she could answer though, there were three knocks on the door, and the whole class turned their heads in unison. Professor McGonagall stood there, black robes sweeping quite elegantly down to the floor.

“I apologize for the disruption, Horace, but the Headmaster would like to see Miss Swire in his office.” She made no eye contact with Josie, but nodded in her direction. There were several ‘ooo’s stifled among the students. 

“Of course! Of course, of course,” Slughorn bowed slightly in acknowledgement, and waved Josephine off before trying to regain control of his class. James winked at her as she passed his desk, and she followed McGonagall out.

* * *

Part of Josephine was glad to be out of double Potions, but part of her was also immensely uneasy about what Dumbledore would have to say. Obviously it would be about the timepiece, but what more could Josephine do to help? McGonagall said nothing on the trip to the Headmaster’s office, seemingly put out for some reason. She gave Josephine the password (‘Sugar Mouse’), and stalked off. While she was leaving, Josie could almost hear the Professor mutter something about her “not being his bloody secretary”, and she smothered a laugh.

This time when she entered Dumbledore’s office, he was not alone. Another man stood by his desk, looking unexpectedly ordinary. He wore a leather apron, jeans, working boots, all worn thin, and an exquisite beard. Of a strong build, only Dumbledore’s pointed hat made him shorter than the Headmaster. Despite all his intimidating physical representations, he had kind eyes, and reminded Josephine a little bit of Rubeus Hagrid. 

“Josephine!” Dumbledore greeted, “May I introduce my good friend, Phillius Temporalis.” The man stepped around the desk to take Josie’s hand.

“Please, call me Phil. The folks are much more sophisticated than I am,” he joked. His large hand swallowed Josephine’s, firm and warm. His accent was American.

“Nice to meet you,” She said politely.

“Sorry to take you out of classes today,” Dumbledore addressed her. “But unfortunately I could just not find another time that suited any better for all three of us!” 

“How ironic!” Phil added, and Josephine laughed.

 

They spent the next twenty minutes setting up a device, which looked vaguely like a spinning top with various wires and outlets. It looked threatening at best. Dumbledore conjured a chair for Josephine to sit on while “Phil” explained that the drawings were extremely helpful in the progression of the invention, but there was no way they could make anything that small yet. The contraption had the same concepts, just with a different outer shell. Dumbledore also added that no one else knew about it except the three of them, while Professor McGonagall had limited knowledge. Eventually Phil stepped back and announced it done, and Dumbledore suggested something that stopped Josephine’s heart. 

“Would you like to try it out?”

 


	26. Twenty Six

TWENTY-SIX

There was, of course, a metaphorical safety net. If the machine worked, it would only send her mentality through time, not her physical form. This was partially due to the fact that the machine wasn’t developed enough, and partially to reduce risk. If it did look like there was something wrong, they could easily pull out the “live wire” (Phil’s jargon for shoving a block into the system of gears, stopping it suddenly). To her, it sounded far from risk free, but maybe this is what she needed. It was one step closer to bringing her home, and one step further away from the despair silently and slowly devouring her. It was undeniable, there was something profoundly _off_ about the way she was living. With the machine, she could see her brother again! Her mother, too, and Harry, and the rest of her friends. And, as Dumbledore said, who better to test it than her?

“Of course, this design was developed before you provided those mechanical drawings, which will be very helpful in the future,” Dumbledore added. Josephine’s face must have shown some degree of uncertainty, because he continued with a hasty, “Rest assured, Phil has a hand for such things, and it has been tested to an extent.”

So, convinced, she sat in the chair underneath the spinning top, the tip pointing down into her. But, while convinced, the circumstances did nothing to calm her nerves. There was a definite whiff of metal, smoke, and, curiously, lemons that engulfed her senses, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut to focus on something else. She felt a strong hand strap her arms and legs to her chair, not a very reassuring gesture, and there was the hum of grinding gears above her head. 

Phil brought out a rack of phials and picked one out with a clink. The content was thick, purple, and smelt sweet. He explained shortly that it was to help separate her mind from her body, and held it up in front of her nose for her to inhale. Soon the purple was all she could see, and the grating of gears became louder and louder, pulsing like a heartbeat. She hardly had time to say a word before she was completely unconscious.

* * *

All around her was black. She took small, short breaths. She could sense nothing except her hands clutching at a cold floor beneath her and as she looked around, Josephine started to panic. There was nothing at all around her, nothing, and she, terrified, remembered her nightmare. The cold wrapped around her body like a coat keeping the winter in. She whimpered like an animal, but heard nothing, and curling up, realized she was naked. 

She struggled up to her knees. Thin, painfully straight white lines cut through her surroundings, forcing a perspective and creating a path. The white was almost blinding after the darkness of before. More lines crossed over each other, and the black void was separated neatly into bricks. Not a path, but a hallway. The ground was smooth under her, still cold, but aggressively pleasing to her stiff fingers. There was something at the end of the hallway, something Josie knew she wanted desperately. She knew not what, but it was so important that she reached it… _so important_ … She crawled, imbedding her nails in the grainy white mortar and pulling herself forward. Her body contorted at the effort. She hung her head low and her labored breaths misted the tiles. 

She hooked around the edges of the inlay, and if it hurt, she wasn’t aware of it. Her fingernails were broken, bent, and bleeding, but she continued. Her chest felt like it was about to cave in with longing. Josephine looked up, crying and sweating, and her surroundings suddenly swirled sickeningly. The lines created a spiral, sucking everything in toward the center, including Josephine, and she fell. The black hole swallowed her, and all that was light.

* * *

Josie was thrown forward, hitting against her frontal skull wall forcefully. Her eyes hurt, and her head felt oppressed within her head, her ears ringing and her hands gripping the armrests of her chair for her life. She was afraid if she didn’t, she might be crushed under the inescapable pull of gravity. As she opened her eyes, she was able to weakly discern the outline of a bucket on her lap, and Josephine Swire retched heavily into it.

 


	27. Twenty Seven

TWENTY-SEVEN

“With all due respect, Professor, I know there’s something at the end of that hallway! With my drawings, you said they would help, we can find out, I know whatever’s there is important, the vision gave me this intense gut instinct and I just know –”

The Headmaster held up a hand gently. “Josephine – I don’t think you heard me – I said I _agree_.” 

“… Oh.” Professor Dumbledore had his eyes fixed on Josie as he continued.

“It was, indeed, as dangerous as expected. That should not stop us from finishing this investigation.” He gave not a sliver of an opportunity for Josie to say a word before adding, “However! That is not to say that we can definitely do so at a much later date. We all need to recover, especially you, Miss Swire. Phillius and I will work off the drawings you made, and for the rest, I advise you forget about this experience for now, and focus on your studies. You are dismissed.”

* * *

Obviously there was something troubling Professor Dumbledore about what had happened that night, but the same could be said for Josephine. How was that whole vision related to the past or the future at all? Her head still hurt, so she tried to do as he had advised. All she really wanted right now was a quiet, numbing drink with Marlene. Before she even reached the portrait hole, Josie kicked and yanked off her shoes and stepped over the threshold in her stocking feet with the pair of them in her hand.

But what met her senses was the exact opposite of what she expected. Immediately, a blast of music slapped her in the face as she entered the common room. A unified body of warm hues swayed in front of her; Gryffindors of all ages sitting, hanging, leaning, stumbling, standing, and dancing with drinks in hand. Something that Josephine should have learnt by now, after all her years at Hogwarts, suddenly came forth above all her other thoughts. When there was even the mere whisper of drink or party, the whole of Gryffindor house would know.

“Josie!” Her name was called out from somewhere amongst the crowd. “Josie! What took you so long?”

“Marlene?” Josie’s voice came out hoarse as Marlene McKinnon stumbled over the legs of students who had collapsed on the floor near the fire. “What’s going on?” Josephine, of course, knew quite perfectly what was going on. The conversation from earlier that week came back to her. _I know exactly what you mean,_ Marlene had said. Well. “Look, you know what, I’m so sorry, but I actually think I’ll just go crash upstairs.” Josie hurriedly half-yelled over the record, and went to go.

“No! Stay!” She grabbed Josephine’s arm. “Sirius got us some top-notch drink, we’ve got cider, beer, and –” Marlene held up a glowing cup of golden liquid, “– firewhiskey! For the brave,” She added with a mischievous smile, before taking a sip to prove her point. Then, a new song started, and Marlene seemed to forget about Josephine as she shimmied off, crooning like a… well, a drunk. Josie couldn’t help but smile a little. She dumped her shoes at the door, in the intention of retrieving them later, and scanned the room. 

There was a group of students who danced by Marlene’s record player in the clearing between furniture, mostly girls, while others surrounded them, watching, mostly boys. She didn’t know why, but the stereotype made Josephine smile. She spotted Peter and James amongst the onlookers, and sure enough, found Lily being dragged to dance with Marlene. There were a bunch of older students who sat on and around the table by the window, where the booze was. Close by was another group sitting comfortably by the fireplace; all attention fixated on – of course – Sirius Black, looking like he was telling some animated story, one arm for beer and the other for some girl. Josie rolled her eyes and sought out Remus.

She found him leaning against the bookcase in the far corner, half of his face illuminated by the fire and the other by the pale touch of the moon. He did have a drink in hand, surprisingly, so Josephine matched him as she went past the table and navigated the room to stand beside him. 

“Hey,” She ventured, bumping him gently with her shoulder.

“Josie! Hi,” Remus said.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” Josephine confessed. Remus smiled, quite genuinely, Josie felt, and nodded.

“I heard this whole thing was your idea,” He gestured with his cup. She laughed.

“Yeah, I didn’t know till a couple minutes ago, but apparently, yes,” Josephine explained. “Um,” She said, looking back at him, and with a pause: “Are you okay?” She had been meaning to ask him. Remus looked down, sighing, as if he knew it was coming, and it had only been a matter of time. In a way, it had. He fiddled with his drink and Josephine thought she had said the wrong thing for a moment. 

“I’m… getting there.” He said, and then fell silent. Josephine didn’t say anything. Eventually, it pushed Remus to conclude. “You know, it was a rough one. But, uh, thanks for asking.” It was hardly a string of sentences, but it was enough. They shared one last smile before Remus excused himself, as he was sensible enough to conk out before the drink did it for him.

 


	28. Twenty Eight

TWENTY-EIGHT

The clock struck eleven and Josephine Swire still stood in the same place, leant against the low bookcase near the fire. Sipping on a cider, she observed her surroundings. The common room looked like the inside of a whale’s belly, the dark rafters it’s confining ribs. Numbers had gotten only slightly smaller – these Gryffindors were in it for the long haul. She could feel the alcohol start to take effect, and her brain stopped thinking a little bit, giving her the ease she had sought for. The music dimmed down to a mellower tune. Josie caught snippets of conversations amongst the hum, mostly ones of quiet pleasantries, but she searched for the more interesting ones – the audacious back and forth of flirting. 

Of course, James Potter was attempting such an endeavor with Lily, but Josie highly suspected that he was drunk, and Lily was quite the opposite. Through this, James was doing much better than he usually would, as Lily merely endured it to laugh at him later. If only she knew.

Just then, Sirius blocked her view as he approached her. 

“Hey,” He offered, and stood in front of her, hand in pocket.

“Hi,” Josephine looked him up and down. One of his shoes was untied, his school shirt was partially undone, and he had his Gryffindor tie knotted around his head. The fat end of the tie swung theatrically in front of his nose, yet he remained in an impressively serious composure. 

“I’m sorry- I just can’t stand it,” Josephine stifled a laugh as she balanced her cider on the table to shift the tie to the side. His eyes remained on hers as she did it, and he smiled gently, forcing Josie muster much will power to take her hands back. “Are you drunk?” Josie asked, unable to stop herself from smiling too.

“No, you’re just blurry,” he accused. He swayed forward a little, and something welled up in Josephine’s heart as the opening chords of the next song joined them in the air. Sirius put down his beer too, just next to Josie’s, and said, “It’s still killing me, you know.” Josephine lowered her head, trying to catch his eye again.

“What is?”

“How you knew all about us…. about Remus,” his sentences were starting to slur. There was something profound about when a person was drunk, and the moments where she caught that definite moment terrified Josephine. She recognized the expression on Sirius Black’s face. The night before she started her first year at Hogwarts, she sat alone, across from her father at the dinner table. It was way past her bedtime, but her mother was doing something else, so she stayed quiet and hoped she wouldn’t be notice until later. Her father had his last beer for the evening, the other empties lined up beside him. It was the first conversation where he treated her like an adult. She can’t remember what they talked about… but that wasn’t important. 

They talked as the rest of the house grew dark, and eventually, words ran out. Josephine’s father simply appraised her with his misty, drunken eyes, immersed in his own thoughts. There was something so honest and human about that moment, she was suddenly struck with the mortality of everything. Her father wasn’t some hero; even he would die some day. She saw a similar look in the drunken eyes of Sirius Black that night.

“Don’t worry about it,” She soothed. “Don’t even worry about it.”  Her voice was soft, and she looked into his human eyes, grey turned silver in the warm light. He drew into her, his gaze wandering down to her lips, eyelids wavering with his unsteadiness. It mustn’t have been more than a few seconds, but to Josephine those seconds passed like minutes. Sirius leant forward, supporting his weight on the edge of the shelf beside Josie with one hand, while the other found her waist. Josephine breathed in his warm scent of alcohol, wood smoke and the autumn, and suddenly felt more intoxicated than any drink could make her. They kissed; tilting until they fitted together like puzzle pieces, exchanging breaths as their hot cheeks scalded each other’s skin. Josephine rested one hand against his slim waist, the other infringing his hairline at the nape of his neck.

Suddenly Josephine snapped her eyes open and pushed Sirius away. This wasn’t meant to happen. Her hand reached her face, covering her mouth as she glared at him. His mouth was still slightly open, pink with the contact. 

“What the hell?” Josie hissed. She looked past him to see if anyone had seen, and it seemed no one had. Looking back, she whispered aggressively. “I just caught you shacking up with Aria Whelkes earlier _this week_!” She gestured wildly with her other hand, staring at Sirius pleadingly. Then, when he didn’t respond, she hovered. But nothing came, and she darted off, finding a path between the stragglers of the night. “What the fuck is wrong with me?” 

Abruptly her head started spinning as she attempted the climb up the stairs, and she pathetically half-crawled to the dorms. Josie caught a glance at her arms as the light reached her and found angry red bruises on her wrists and forearms. The vibrancy alarmed her, and she ran her fingers over them before remembering why they were there. Josephine pulled herself up and opened the door to the girls’ dorm, the calm of it’s interior a sudden comfort. She was the first back, (apart from Dorcas, who had skipped the party all together) and took the opportunity to flop into bed. She was not on _any circumstances_ to wake up tomorrow morning before lunch. 

 


	29. Twenty Nine

TWENTY-NINE

Josephine woke miraculously late the next morning. She snorted as she saw she wasn’t the last out of bed – there was still a bulge under the covers of Marlene McKinnon’s bed. That girl would have one hell of a hangover. Josie proceeded as quietly as she could. After a long shower, she got dressed into jeans and her favourite shirt, sporting the _Marvel Comics_ logo. More importantly, it was long-sleeved, and covered the bruises on her arms. Wrapping a headscarf around her unruly hair, she secured it away from her face, and walked down to the Great Hall – she was just in time for lunch. Of course, she remembered what had happened the night before. Sirius was way out of line in kissing her, especially after he went ahead with the same tactic on the girl Peter supposedly liked. How arrogant was that, though? Sirius just _assumed_ that every girl he surrounds himself with wants him romantically. _Perhaps some of them do_ , Josephine allowed… _but that is completely beside the point._

Reaching the tall entrance to the hall, she spotted Lily and Remus at the Gryffindor table.

“Finally awake, are we?” Lily teased as Josephine joined them. 

“Pfft,” Josephine dismissed. “Merlin, though, that was the best sleep I’ve had in ages,” She said, sitting down and grabbing a muffin. “Where are the others?”

“Quidditch practice,” Remus explained, looking up from the book he was reading. He had all his homework out.

“But only Sirius and James do quidditch…”

“And Peter’s watching.”

“Ah.” Josephine laughed.

“I was just telling Remus about this _splendid_ concert we’re going to in a couple of months!” Lily said sarcastically.

“Yes! November eighteenth, everyone save the date!” Josie said enthusiastically. “But seriously, Lily, get over it, you’re not gonna worm your way out of this one…” She stared at her pointedly, and they giggled.

“The eighteenth?” Remus repeated, sounding worried.

“Yeah…” Lily said. 

“What’s wrong? Got a beauty appointment that day?” Josie joked, but Remus started looking like he was going to be ill.

“No, it’s nothing,” he dismissed. Lily and Josie shared a confused look. Before they could question him further, they heard the loud creaking of a window, signifying the opening of the giant shutters that let in the owls. A small brown owl dropped a letter in front of Remus, skidding across his papers. Unexpectedly a letter was dropped in front of Josephine also, jumping against her forearm. The envelope was light brown, with the Ministry of Magic’s logo in the corner in glistening gold ink. 

“What’s that?” Lily leaned over the table to look at it. 

“It’s a letter from the Ministry of Magic,” Josephine answered absently.

“Yeah, I know _that_ ,” Lily said, exasperated. “What is it about?”

Josephine flipped the letter over and ripped the envelope open with her nails. A sharp pain reverberated down her bones at the use of her damaged fingernails and she drew in breath. She looked down at her hands, expected some sort of bruising in the least, but her fingers looked undamaged, and Josephine started to think she imagined it. Shaking it off, she took the letter out and began to read.

 

_Josephine –_

_It was good to hear from you, and I am pleased that Hogwarts is suiting you well. It occurred to me at acceptance of your letter that you may not have a place to spend the holidays in (although they are thankfully a while away). I have discussed this matter with my wife, and although we have no room to accommodate you (as much as I wish we did, truly), we would like to help you out in other ways._

_I’ve called in with Daisy up at the Leaky Cauldron Inn (who owes me some favours), and she said she would be pleased to have you as a resident for the year. Obviously this will be excluding the time you will be attending school. In addition, enclosed should be enough cash to get you going to save up and find another place to stay._

 

Josephine stopped reading momentarily and upturned the envelope. A piece of paper fluttered out of the opening and onto the table. In more golden writing, it said her name in looping handwriting and underneath that… _700 Galleons_. 

“Holy wizarding _God_ ,” she expressed. She leant back in her chair and almost fell backwards for forgetting the lack of a backrest on the benches. It was a cheque… for seven _hundred_ galleons?! She covered her mouth and stared at the thing. Lily’s hand snatched it and her mouth dropped open as she appraised it.

“Holy _shit_ ,” came her exclamation from across the table, where she held the cheque in her own trembling hands, showing it to Remus.

“Whoa,” he looked back at Josephine with big eyes. “Who gave it to you?!”

“Um,” Josephine tried to organize her thoughts. “A-uh-family friend. Old colleague of my dad’s.”

“He must have found out that you were a wizard like him and wanted to help you,” Lily pondered, still staring at the cheque.

“Yeah,” Josie said quietly. “That is _so_ much money.”

“I’d say… but what did _he_ say?” Remus prompted.

Josephine found the letter again and scanned it to where she left off.

“Well he says that it’s to go towards a place for me to stay, or whatever I need, since my parents aren’t really supporting me anymore… Well, my _parent_ ,” Josie corrected herself. This lying was just getting easier and easier. “And, um, until I’m ready to find another place, he’s pulled in favours at the Leaky Cauldron to let me stay for free!” Her breath caught after she got the explanation out, and she grinned back at the others with tears in her eyes. 

“That’s _amazing_ , Josie!” 

“I can’t believe he would invest that much money in me!” She exclaimed. “It’s not even investing, it’s just downright giving it to me!”

“What was he thinking?” Remus joked, but he was grinning too.

“Who knows?!” Josephine laughed. 

“I know,” Lily said. “He’s family, really, isn’t he? I mean, your real family. Your mother stopped being that after your father died, and he’s picking up the pieces.”

Josie just couldn’t stop smiling at them both, and at the letter and the cheque. “Wow,” she whispered. Family, indeed. Then she realized she hadn’t read the rest of the letter yet.

 

_Anyway, I hope this will carry you through the next few years of your life at least. I know you’re an intelligent girl, and I trust this with you to do as you see fit. I guess I am softer than I thought. It saddened both my wife and I to realize how lonely you must be at this time. Please do keep writing me! I’d love to hear about your adventures._

 

_Your friend,_

_Darius Kalt_

 

_P.S. What a lovely (and professional) bird you’ve found! He practically shook my hand as he came in._

 

The lean owl stood by her, completely forgotten during the ordeal. He looked at her, proud and upright, and Josephine gave him a well-deserved stroke on the chest. 

“Well, aren’t you the ultimate little messenger?” She said affectionately. He cooed, and Josephine spoke back, dubbing him for the great herald of Olympus. 

“Mercury.”

 


	30. Thirty

THIRTY

Around jagged corners and a maze of books, there was a solitary crook inside the Hogwarts library. Those who visited there could sense that it had a certain air of fulfillment, although not many could put it into words. It was the atmospheric feeling that subtly suggested non-emptiness, even when there wasn’t anyone or anything in it. On this particular occasion, it happened Josephine wasn’t alone. She sat in a large engulfing armchair with her sketchbook on her knees, quietly appraising a crooning ghost. She had never seen him before, although she liked seeing him now.

Dressed in smart 1920’s garb, he sang into a microphone with a silvery voice. While his band was not visible, their rhythmic sound seemed to pulse through the Singer. The tune sounded faint and distant, but the library was so silent that even that immersed Josie the illusion. He seemed unaware of his surroundings, unlike other Hogwarts ghosts. Colour started to wash through him. Persuasive de-saturated browns flared out, touching the spines of books, further outward until Josephine’s whole periphery looked like an old photograph. The music became louder, clearer, and greens started flickering on the Singer’s waistcoat and tie. It tided out in waves until his whole person looked tangible. His voiced blared over the microphone and he danced, that amicable dance. The dance that singers dance, with their head still at the microphone and the rest of their body moving with the beat. His feet shuffled, and Josie scrambled to capture his likeness.

He had an amazing brow. It arched up as the trumpets swelled and Josephine found herself smiling. Her pencil scratched against the paper, catching his dynamic air, the twinkle in his eye, and she filled the page. The Singer clutched his heart in the final notes of the song. He turned and snarled out the last lyric. The edges of his mouth lifted and for a moment Josephine could have sworn he looked straight at her with his wicked smile. 

Suddenly the apparition was broken, and the Singer dispersed like smoke. The airflow rushed dust off their books and ran through Josie’s hair. The music faded out into silence once more. In his place stood Peter Pettigrew, tugging at his tie nervously and wringing it in his hands. Josephine looked down at her sketchbook. Her drawings of the Singer were still there: she couldn’t have imagined it. Her mind suddenly felt very dull without thoughts of that world filling it. The melody of his song was still echoing.

“Hi,” Peter muttered.

“Uh, hi,” Josephine flashed him a quick smile. Had he not seen the ghost? He looked blank, mouth open as if about to say something. He stayed silent. The sanctity of her cozy library crook temporarily ruined, she started packing up her stuff.

“Wait,” Peter said as she put her sketchbook in her bag. “I, uh, I really like your drawings.” He gestured toward them.

“Thank you…” She said slowly.

“Not that I’ve been watching you or anything!” He said quickly. “I’ve just… heard things. Nice things.” 

“My favourite type of things,” Josephine kidded. Why had he sought her out like this? She was literally cornered, and it was a little awkward.

“Can I see some of them?” Pettigrew asked, articulating every word. Josephine sighed. 

“Yeah, sure,” she answered, and got her sketches out again. She spent the next 20 or so minutes showing him some of her drawings, making sure to leave the ones of the Singer hidden in her bag. It felt wrong, somehow, to share him. They sat on the floor, the drawings lain out in front of them (much better than sharing the armchair, Josephine joked with herself). 

“What’s that one?” Peter pulled out a sketch on larger paper, folded in several places. Josie looked over his shoulder. They were the technical drawings for Dumbledore.

“Ah…” She stalled. “They’re just some stupid invention I’ve thought about. Not really that interesting.” Trying to deter Peter from them, she decided humbly that he was gullible enough that something like this would work. She tried to ease the drawing of his hands. He just looked at her for a second before letting her take it from him. 

As Peter tired from looking at Josie’s art, she suggested they get back to the common room. They left, Peter leading the way, and as Josephine passed the bookshelf where the Singer had stood, she felt something. It wasn’t the typical cold shiver you get from walking through a spirit, but rather, a warming familiarity that filled her with a bizarre sense of nostalgia. But what for, she couldn’t place.

* * *

Later, when she got to her dorm, Josephine took the drawings from that afternoon out to look at properly. After checking that she was alone, Josie found the ones of the apparition and pinned them onto the headboard of her bed and sat back. They weren’t bad – the likeness was surprising. She started imagining his shuffling feet, and smiled. The more she looked at them the louder the music got in her head. It’s rhythm pounded against her skull and started making the image distort. The song played over and over, garbling and becoming something else. The gestural lines guided her eyes in circles, hypnotizing her and drawing her in deeper. Growing overwhelming, the tune filled her ears to the point of pain – but Josephine couldn’t look away. As it consumed her, she couldn’t think of anything else. The white of the paper got whiter and whiter until it was blinding, and the pencil lines looked like cut, gaping wounds. It amplified and amplified until it was all shattered by the sound of a gunshot. 

 


	31. Thirty One

THIRTY-ONE

Josephine awoke suddenly, tangled in her clothes. Scrambling up to her knees, she looked around. She was the only one in the dorm room. Her eyes grasped the sketches on her headboard and launched herself toward them, ripping them from the wall with a strangled scream. Her hands shook as she crunched the paper into a ball and threw it into the furnace at the center of the room. Her breathing finally caught and as she felt the sudden heat from the burning paper, she closed her eyes. Tears. Pressing her palms to her eyelids, she clenched her jaw and tried to calm herself down. Distressed sounds escaped her mouth every time she exhaled. Her head still ached. What the hell was happening to her? Josie checked the time. Two hours since she blacked out. Not quite composed, she rolled over to her back and lay there. Focusing her eyes on the pattern on the ceiling helped her. There was a sudden _pop_ and a _hiss_ from the fire, and Josephine jolted up. Pure fear struck her as she spotted something fleeing the vents of the heater. Floating daintily down to the floor, replenishing itself from smoldering ashes, were her drawings of the Singer. They were completely unharmed by the time they hit the floor. But she _saw_ them burn. They were destroyed. The fire had spit them out. It was as if not even that furnace could handle the sheer _malevolence_ of whatever this was. For however many questions she had – Josephine Swire knew for certain that the apparition harboured some kind of evil that she didn’t care to explore further. 

Practically falling down beside the sketches, Josephine felt around underneath her bed feverishly. Dragging out various miscellany, she threw it all behind her. She searched for something specific. Finally, she took out a small box. It was dark, and ugly, and suited the drawings perfectly. She unclasped it and stuffed them inside, closing it with the least amount of eye contact with the paper as possible. She locked it, belted it, jinxed it, and charmed it to look like a colourful music box. Stashing it underneath her bed again, she put all the items back, as many as she could to fill the space between it and her. Only after this, she breathed again. 

It took another few hours for Josie to attempt to collect herself and clean herself up. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get his face out of her mind. He laughed, leaned away from the microphone, repeat, like a sick, broken screen test. She saw him in the mirror, if only for a second. She saw him in the posters on Marlene’s wall. She drew a bath. The room was too quiet. The water was too hot. She lay in the bath for an agonizing two minutes before giving up and letting the water drain out as she still sat there. She held her hands against her head as if to keep it from falling apart, the throbbing pain still enduring. Shoddily dragging her clothes back over her damp body, she internalized an intense urge to scream. It was like she was hollow on the inside, ready to shatter like a teapot at any point of contact. This feeling consumed her, and when she exhaled deeply enough, she almost believed it to be true. Josephine found herself walking along the halls of Hogwarts. Numb, she only had a vague idea of how she got there. She didn’t remember talking to anyone yet and knew if she did, she wouldn’t be able to find the words. Clenching her jaw, she still held her head desperately. She thought she was still, but the world kept moving around her. 

Staring at an uninteresting brick in the stonework, it was impossible to turn her attention on anything else but the horrid laughter. It sounded blissful. It was a deep, warm, genuine laugh… The repetition made it hard to get a grasp on the concept of time. It wasn’t the laughter itself that made her feel like she was punching at the walls of her own skull. Josephine collapsed onto her knees, pressing her forehead against the stone, hard. The screen test echoed over and over in her mind, and the most curious thing was that she didn’t seem to get less surprised or horrified every time that last uncensored frame exhibited the Singer getting shot in the head.

* * *

 

It only seemed to get worse and more intense until a voice cut through.

“Josephine? Are you okay?” For a moment, Remus Lupin’s inquiry occupied Josie’s mind more than the Singer and it cleared her head. It was so sudden; it was like she had just woken up out of a nightmare. The storm clouds had parted, if only for a moment. Looking up, she saw that she had kicked her way into a corner next to the portrait of the fat lady. She hadn’t made it that far at all. Josie could hear her own heartbeat, fast and afraid. Slowly, the Singer’s twinkling eye started to reappear in the dark.

“I-” Josie tried to speak to keep her mind from feasting on the silence. Remus looked concerned, but luckily he was alone.

“Can you stand?” He asked. Josephine nodded and let Remus help her up. “What happened?”

“I don’t…” she trailed off. “Remus?” 

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever seen a singing ghost at Hogwarts from the 1920’s?” He looked confused, and shook his head. Carefully letting go of her arm, he tested if she was steady. 

“Eat this,” he offered her a few squares of dark chocolate, seemingly making them appear from nowhere. “You’ll feel better.” As Josephine marveled the shallow advantages of a friend who carried chocolate everywhere, Remus guided her back through the portrait hole.

 


	32. Thirty Two

THIRTY-TWO

For the next few days the Singer still haunted Josie. She never saw him again as an apparition, like when she first found him, but just saw glimpses, flashes of his horrid last moments – when she was alone and when she least expected it. She slept very badly, and some nights not at all during that week, as then there was nothing to distract her from his manifestation in her head. Passing them off as headaches to her friends, these episodes grew less and less frequent as September merged into October. However, this did not mean that Josephine could as easily forget him. She was starting to suspect that he wasn’t a ghost at all, but she hadn’t found any leads in the records in the school library. Granted, she admitted she wasn’t looking very hard, afraid of what she would find. The jinxed black box under her bed still seemed to radiate an ill energy, and Josephine was trying to find another place to deposit it.

Their first class of that month was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Professor Sprout wasn’t in the greenhouse yet as Josephine arrived with Lily.

“So where are you going for Christmas, then?” Lily asked her.

“Christmas? It’s a bit early for that, innit?” Josie replied.

“Is it?” 

Josephine shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it.” She said honestly.

“Well, you can’t go home, that’s for sure.” Josie hadn’t heard a sentence truer. She supposed she would just stay at Hogwarts for the winter holidays. _God, how lonely that’ll be_ , she thought. They rounded the corner to their classroom and found the rest of the students faffing around until Professor Sprout arrived. The greenhouse was warm and clammy despite the chill outside. The sunlight streamed in through a green film that had built up on the glass, creating a thick atmosphere that tinted everything in an organic hue. The marauders, minus Peter (who did not take Herbology) were deep in conversation at the end of the long table in the middle of the room. She heard Lily sigh. The last available space in the class was opposite them.

Josephine didn’t mind. They always made her laugh, and always in the worst, most quiet or solemn of times. They had played “would you rather” in the back of Charms the day before. However, they were soon in an unexpected contest to think of the most obscene scenarios, and it sent them in fits. Josie was still left with the uncomfortable thought of Remus being forced to watch his parents having sex once as apposed to eating human flesh for dinner every day (courtesy of Sirius Black’s corrupt imagination). Despite a rather stern look from Professor Flitwick, Josie concluded: “worth it”. That man was far too nice to send any of them to detention anyway. Although, James did warn them that if they’d better not lose any house points because of some stupid dick jokes. 

Curiously, Sirius treated her the same as before his drunken night. Josephine could not place whether this was because he didn’t remember or because he would rather forget it. Either way, she hadn’t talked to him alone since then, and was quite comfortable forgetting about it, herself. As Josie dumped her stuff at the base of the table, Lily burst into laughter. Josephine looked up.

James was very unsuccessfully trying to stifle his sniggering as he appraised Sirius, who sat looking resigned on the edge of a giant ceramic pot. Slumped, the only thing that brought him to his normal height was his ridiculous mop of hair. It stuck out at absurd angles, swept away from his face and upright, like a cartoon cow had licked his head. The thing that made it hilarious, though, was the look of complete misery on the boy’s face. Josie erupted into giggles. Remus merely grinned at him. 

“What happened?” Lily asked.

“We had quidditch practice this morning and I put a potion into his hair product…” James couldn’t make it any further without bursting into wheezing laughter again.

Sirius looked up and released a theatrically upset sigh, making the whole group lose it, just as Professor Sprout entered the room.

“Settle down, settle, settle,” She waved her arms as she bumbled. She levitated a long, thick, dark tree branch in through the small glass doorway and gently let it down onto the table.  It was contorted like a human spine, twisting around itself at an awkward slant. There were various mosses and fungi growing on the wood, emerging from the cracks in the bark in the most saturated colours Josephine had ever seen from nature. Sirius was forced to go on with the class as if nothing was wrong, although he got several muffled snickers and pointed fingers. 

“Today we’re looking at this special specimen from the mirkwood,” Professor Sprout paused as she caught sight of Sirius. She gave him a confused look and a quick shake of her head before continuing. “With prolonged exposure to anything from the mirkwood comes the risk of hallucination and obstruction of the lungs…”

“Mirkwood?” Josephine muttered to Lily, throat still warm from laughing. “Isn’t that something from Lord of the Rings?”

“You wish.” She answered quickly. They were handed worn bandanas to cover their noses and mouth for the duration of the lesson. They dissected the branch, Professor Sprout walking them through the different aspects of the organisms, logging and storing the various specimens and pointing out the magical properties. It was the most interesting Herbology lesson Josephine had ever had. They weren’t nearly finished with the tree by the time class ended, and Professor Sprout explained that they would probably wrap up in the next few days, giving the extracts and useful items for potions to Professor Snape.

“That was brilliant!” Sirius exclaimed as they exited the greenhouse.

“Who are you fooling, Sirius?” Lily scoffed, “Since when have you had an interest in school work?”

“I’m offended, Lil!” He walked backwards a small way in front of the group to talk to her face on. “I’m a model student! Besides, what’s not to like about a forest that makes you think you’re having tea and biscuits with Jesus and David Bowie?” His outgoing manner and his electrified hair made him look like an insane inventor from the 1900s. All he needed now was a pair of goggles on his forehead.

“Ah, but are they not one and the same?” James waved a finger to the sky.

“Right you are,” Sirius replied with a sweep of his head, making his hair bob like a separate entity. Josephine snorted.

“You laughing at me, Swire?” He grinned.

“So what if I am?” She countered, sharing his smile.

“Well,” He said as he swerved in to walk shoulder to shoulder with her. She kept forgetting how tall he was. “It depends on whose side you’re on. Should I be thinking of a counter prank for you too, now?”

“You haven’t thought of anything yet?” James asked in a cocky voice. “You just had that whole class to come up with summat!”

“Well, you could always eat his homework,” Josephine jested. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think that last joke went over everyone's heads....


	33. Thirty Three

  
THIRTY-THREE

A week passed, but Josephine could all but forget the dark force manifesting underneath her bed. The irony of it did not escape her. She was a one of the many sufferers of the “monster-under-the-bed” as a child, and as a wizard, she often wondered how much a myth that creation was. She hadn’t drawn a single line since the Singer. While she had almost gotten a grip on whatever had a grip on her, she was still deathly afraid that it would happen again. What if she drew something worse? What if it manifested on her and never let go? She didn’t much like the idea of joining in on Neville’s parent’s lifestyle. 

Dumbledore called on her that week asking for more drawings of the machine, or anything else she could remember, but she couldn’t bring herself to create anything more. And so instead, she found herself looking for her old leftover sketches on a Thursday evening before Astronomy. She knew it was bad that she didn’t put all of her efforts into this time travelling investigation but she felt if she drew, much worse things would come out of it. What was a little lie against a world full of demons? Besides, she couldn’t remember much more about the whole ordeal than she had already told. As guilty as she felt, it was useless, as the drawings were nowhere to be found.

They weren’t anywhere in the common room, and Josephine swore she left them in her bag after she had shown them to Peter. And she definitely hadn’t thrown them away. She emptied out her bag and there was a flood of parchment and bits of miscellany spread out on the floor of the dorm. Who else had seen the drawings? The only other person who had touched them was… Sirius Black. 

“Goddamnit all,” Josie sighed, exhausted. She was sat on the floor alone, pinching the bridge of her nose. But why would Sirius take them? He had shown an interest in them, but not enough to steal them. Josephine pushed it aside for the moment. There was no other explanation. In the meantime, she had nothing to show Dumbledore. 

She was interrupted from her thoughts by a loud tapping on the window. It pierced through the quiet of the room like gunshots and for a second, Josephine couldn’t see. She felt like she was falling backwards for a brief moment in time before realizing she hadn’t moved at all, and the tapping was persisting. Exhaling, she shook her head, and stood. Although bouts like this had gotten less and less common, they stayed as intense as before.

At the window floated a messy head black hair and a pair of spindly, gloved fingers drumming at the windowpanes. Speak of the devil. 

“Sirius? What the hell…?” Josie rushed to the window and opened it. So quickly, in fact, that it caught the boy off guard and he got hit in the face with it. He jerked backwards, his hand over his nose.

“Blimey!” He exclaimed.

“Sorry!” Josephine opened the window further to reach toward him. “Are you okay?” But she hardly got through the sentence before bursting into laughter. Sirius was hovering by the windowsill on his broom, presumably coming back from quidditch practice, judging from his uniform. 

“Jeez! Did anyone see that?” He looked around, hand still pressed against his nose. Trust him to worry more about if anyone saw him than if his nose was broken.

“No, there’s no one else in the dorm,” Josephine said, still smiling. She pulled his hand away from his face and saw, with relief, no blood. 

“Will I live?” His voice wavered as he gave her his best puppy dog eyes. 

“Oh, shut up, you’re fine,” Josephine laughed and dropped his hand. “What are you doing here? You’re not allowed in the girls dorm.” 

“And I’m not, am I?” He looked smug as he gestured toward himself, still, regrettably, outside the premises of the room. Josephine leaned on the windowsill, an expectant look on her face.

“I just wanted to drop by and let you know that there’s a Hogsmeade visit this weekend,” He continued, proud. Josephine loved looking at him. His boyishness made her forget the evil in her world, and the next. 

“And…?” Josie prompted. 

“Well, you should go with us,” He replied, as if it was obvious.

“You do realize I would have seen you at Astronomy tonight, you didn’t have to put in all this effort,” She said. 

“Yeah…” Sirius said, and it was obvious that he hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I mean, I just came back from Quidditch, so I thought…” He grinned. His hair brushed gently over his face as a breeze picked up. Josephine shivered.

“You’re an idiot,” Josephine smiled back. 

“You like it.” They stayed there for a second, looking at each other in the half-light. Josie broke the eye contact and brushed her hair from her face. 

“It’s getting cold,” She observed. “And dark.” 

“Yeah, I’ve gotta go back and hit the showers,” He said. 

“Does James know you’re here?” Josie asked in sudden curiosity. 

“James isn’t the boss of me,” Sirius answered, and Josephine translated that into a ‘no’. He started drifting away slowly into the hazy evening.

“See you later,” Josephine called after him. And then, “Oh wait!” He stopped, turning back toward her with raised eyebrows.

“Did you take those sketches I showed you the other day?” She ventured. She might as well stay honest in one part of her life. Sirius Black looked confused.

“No, why would I?”

“I don’t know,” She admitted. “I can’t find them, that’s all.” She bit her lip and gathered her sweater around her. Cold autumn air rushed into the room swiftly, curling around her neck and sending the parchment on the floor running.

“Well, anyway, see you later,” she sighed.

“See you in Astronomy,” he corrected, and with that Josie closed the window. She clicked it carefully shut. _What a twat_ , she thought, but she couldn’t help smiling. Josie watched him fly across the grounds of Hogwarts. If Sirius didn’t take them who did? And how much did they know? Maybe it was time to find a confidant.


	34. Thirty Four

THIRTY-FOUR

Josephine felt as though a new source of energy pushed against her ribs and made her walk straighter. She knew it was silly, but the spontaneity in her life gave her happiness. It was only the 488 stairs up to the Astronomy tower that brought her back to reality. 

The room welcomed her in a way that made her nostalgic for the present. It was ironic, in a way, but Josie didn’t regard this life as the past anymore. The darkness enveloped her, not in the same way as the Singer did, but in a warm welcoming way, that reminded her of the living entity of the school. Professor Sinistra had set up desks this week. A few people were in class already, all wrapped up warm against the chill of the night. Among them was Remus Lupin, who waved her over.

“Hey,” they greeted each other. Josephine took the seat next to him. She organized her books on the desk, along with _Leo Wilson’s Theory to Astronomy_. Its cover was so garishly 70s that it made her smile every time after looking at it. 

“Are you okay?” Remus asked. 

“Yeah, why?” Josie said immediately. But of course, she knew why. It was only a few days ago when Remus found her collapsed on the floor at loss of who or where she was. Something Josephine imagined Remus had experienced far too often in his life. Remus cleared his throat. 

“Uh, well, are you sure?” he persisted. Josephine sighed. She turned towards him in his chair and observed. His tie was too short. She saw him trying to tuck the tail into the buttons of his shirt sometimes, but it always escaped. His hands curled and fiddled around with his quill, ruffling the tendrils of the feather. Finally, her gaze reached up to his eyes. His pupils were the dark equivalent to the full moon, sympathetic where the dark circles underneath them weren’t. 

“I’m getting there,” She admitted, honestly. Remus nodded, smiled, and Josephine reached over for a hug. “Thanks, Remus.” Her arms found their way around him with folds of robes settling around them. 

“You may not want to answer this, but what actually happened?” Remus tested as they released. Josephine considered it for a moment. If there was anyone that could help her with the Singer mystery it was Remus Lupin, and he she had no doubt of his loyalty. 

“Well,” Josie said quietly. “I do owe you a secret.” Before she could say any more, the bell rang. Looking up, she realized the other students had gradually filed into the class while they were talking. She couldn’t help searching for Sirius’s face, and she found him in the back with James. He was already looking at her, and they shared a smile as Sinistra addressed the room.

“So! We’ve brushed up on our star charts haven’t we?” She started. They recapped the major constellations before going around the room naming a star each. Josephine offered “Atlas”, while Sirius announced, “Sirius, the brightest star in the sky”, swinging so far back in his chair that Josephine had flashbacks of Seamus Finnigan falling and splitting his head open in third year. Then Professor Sinistra made an introductory speech on their next big topic (investigating the influences of Astronomy on different cultures throughout history) so intense that for those 50 minutes Josephine almost forgot about her abandoned conversation with Remus.

By the end of the lesson, however, Remus had not. 

“Have you got a study tomorrow morning?” He asked as students started back down to the dorms. Josephine nodded. “I’ll talk to you then. Meet me in the library.”

“Okay,” Josie said, flashing him a quick smile. Remus smiled back before standing.

“Off to detention now,” he said with a grimace.

“What? You?” Josephine almost laughed. “What for?”

“Don’t. Ask.” He advised. She didn’t. 

* * *

“How was detention?” Josephine said at the window in the library on Friday morning, cross-legged and bookless. 

“Not too bad, actually,” Remus confessed. “Pringle just had us clean the desks in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room.” 

“Is that actually his name or do you guys just call him that?” 

“Nah, unfortunately that is his actual name.” 

“Unfortunately?”

“Yeah,” Remus said with a straight face, “Every time we get a detention with him Sirius complains about how his name sets unfair expectations. His moaning is almost louder than his growling stomach.” 

They laughed, and kept the conversation light until eventually Remus reminded her why they had met up. Piece by piece Josephine told him what had happened with the Singer, first the ghost, then the drawing, the destruction and reappearance, the hallucinations, and the hideaway underneath her bed. As she told it Remus stayed quiet. It was a surprisingly easy story to tell. While she thought it would be hard and emotional, the words flowed out of her like they had been waiting to and had just been released. 

“Well, I don’t know anything about this ghost or it’s possession in your drawing…” He said thoughtfully. He leaned with his hip against one of the study tables. There was no one else in the library on a Friday morning. “But I know where you can get rid of it for now.” 

Josie’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?” His expression remained calm, as if they were only talking about a homework problem.

“Yeah, have you ever heard of a room called the Room of Requirement?” Josephine gasped. Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? “I’m not exactly sure where it is, or if it even exists, but-“ Remus continued, but Josephine already jumped up and walked past him. She grabbed a fistful of his school jersey and dragged him behind her. 

“I know _exactly_ where that is.”


	35. Thirty Five

THIRTY-FIVE

After walking up and down the corridors of the seventh floor for almost half an hour without success, Remus cleared his throat pointedly. Josephine ran her hands along the rough stonewall as they walked, and Remus trailed behind at a slower pace, hands in his pockets. The castle was comfortingly still; all life locked away behind classroom doors.

“Are you sure you know where it is?” Remus said eventually. Josie said nothing and kept running along the wall, thinking as much as she could about how much she needed to find the room. “I mean, you’ve only been here for a couple months, how could you know?” He continued, even though he knew Josephine wasn’t listening.

Instead she put her head closer to the walls, heeding… something. She could be crazy, but she swore she heard something, a high pitched sound like a finger dragged across a wine glass. “Even James and Sirius haven’t found it… and you said you were hallucinating so…” Remus reasoned in the background. He stopped and observed her as the sound got louder and Josephine quickened her pace. She got to an intersection just by a tapestry of some trolls trying to learn ballet as the pitch reverberated before dying out. Josie brushed her hand across her satchel where she had stashed the music box. She flashed a look back to Remus before regarding the tapestry again. It was like she thought it would disappear if she didn’t pay attention.

“This is it!” She called back to Remus, a little way down the hallway, still. 

“Are you sure?” he asked, but she didn’t answer. As he caught up with her she walked around to the side, peeking behind the cloth. “This is it,” she said quieter, to herself. She stepped back and walked back and forth in front of the tapestry three times, eyes closed and concentrating on the ruin of the Singer’s head at the gunshot. Her breath quickened without her wanting it to.

“What are you doing?” Remus spoke out. Slightly dizzy, Jose reached out and moved the tapestry back to engulf herself in the heavy fabric. She breathed in and caught a whiff of dust in her lungs. Coughing, she felt around in the darkness.

“There must be a door here somewhere,” She called back. Thinking intensely about how she couldn’t keep the box for much longer without giving in, she heard Remus shuffle around for a bit.

“Um… maybe you should use your wand?” He offered. 

“Oh.” Josie pulled out her wand. “Lumos.” She stood a few millimetres away from a dark slab of wood with intricate gold detail. “Yes!” She exclaimed in triumph, turning the knob with a click. 

“What?!” she heard Remus respond in disbelief, and Josephine just laughed. 

* * *

The Room of Requirement looked different for anyone who entered, but there was more often than not, a collective need for a place to store things. It is this room that Josephine walked into – a place many wizards and witches had been during Hogwarts time, apparent by the sheer amount of junk it harboured. There were stacks upon stacks of things, in piles and on shelves. It was the landfill of the valuable (both wanted and unwanted). After climbing over a grand piano that was half-blocking the entrance, Josephine looked back. Remus swung his legs over the piano and pushed off to land on a mound of discarded books. You could hardly see the floor.

“I have to admit, I was doubting you a bit back there,” he confessed. Josephine smiled smugly. “How did you know it was here?”

“I’ve-uh… done some reading,” she said. Remus looked unconvinced but didn’t question her further. 

They walked on, chins tilted toward the ceiling as they kept an eye on the teetering towers of relics that once meant something to someone. Slipping on books on the floor and catching themselves on the corners of beaten furniture, they explored.

“Check this out,” Josephine called over to Remus, who was investigating the inside of a chest of drawers. She picked up a musty red coat from the floor. It had tails and was clearly Victorian. “This is so cool!” She said. Remus came over to look. “You should totally try it on!” She urged him. He looked at her as if to check if she was serious.

“I dunno, why would someone leave it here if there wasn’t something dodgy about it,” He said. 

“Ugh, screw that,” she shoved it toward him, but he didn’t bite. “Come on, Lupin, someone probably just left it here to keep it safe,” she assured him. Remus made a sound of indignation before taking the coat from her and shrugging into it. It was slightly too big.

“Oh, that _is_ glorious,” Josephine said. Remus snickered and turned around. The arms were slightly too long, so only his fingers poked out from the bottom of the coat, and half the buttons were missing. Despite this, Josephine wasn’t lying. The colour suited him somehow. 

“The cuffs go halfway up my forearm,” Remus pointed out, smiling. 

“You should take it,” she said.

“What would I do with it?” he asked.

“I don’t know… Wear it to a suitor’s ball to regain your family’s fortune,” she joked. “Whoever owned it before won’t miss it.” 

“That’s probably true,” Remus admitted. 

 

The two continued looking around, getting lost a couple times but navigating by way of the huge renaissance painting which sat atop one of the bigger towers. 

“We should probably hurry, we’re going to be late for Ancient Runes,” Remus said, looking at his watch. He was still wearing the coat, looking like a child in the world’s biggest dress up chest. Josephine sighed. 

“Yeah,” she said, disappointed. She had found a place for her enchanted box in a glass cabinet against the left wall of the chamber. It housed other various trinkets, which caused Josephine to think about the stories behind those objects, and who might find her cursed drawing next. They disposed of the box. She closed the cabinet with a soft click. Josephine didn’t regret confiding in Remus, she reflected as they walked back to class. He wasn’t only compassionate and trustworthy, but having company made the situation feel a bit less heavy. The perspective brought clarity and shutting the door of the room of requirement had been satisfying (and literal) closure. 

The Ancient Runes classroom was always cold, not matter what the weather. It surpassed Josie how a magical castle could not generate a little heat for the students, but it gave the room it’s charm. The returning pupils would be prepared enough to bring extra layers, and that was how Josephine found herself huddling with Lily Evans in one scarf. They practiced drawing the symbols and forms and as Lily pointed out the likeness of the Rune “earthquake” to a man with a mustache, Josephine caught herself sketching again.

 


	36. Thirty Six

THIRTY-SIX

“Oh, I just don’t know…” Josephine said, but with a smile. She lay on her back on her bed, still in uniform. 

“What is there not to know?” Marlene exclaimed, as she ran her fingers through her hair. She deftly started plaiting it as she stared at Josie. “He obviously fancies you!” They were, of course, talking about Sirius Black. Ever since Sirius had so fantastically visited her at her window, Josephine struggled to keep it out of her mind. 

“Yeah, but, he fancies so _many_ people…” Josie replied with a nervous bout of laughter. Marlene snorted. Lily feinted working on her potions essay, but Josephine could see her smiling. “What do you think, Lily?”

“I think,” said Lily without looking up, “that you’re just going to have to wait and see this weekend, won’t you? There’s no point bothering yourself over it like this.” 

“That’s true,” Josephine admitted, but Marlene just shook her head. The truth was that Josephine felt a little uncomfortable with the whole situation. How could someone like Sirius Black fancy _her_? Apart from the obvious self-esteem issues that Josephine faced, she was also grappling with potential insanity. If Sirius knew that, he would run away screaming. There must be something about her that he liked, else he wouldn’t give her the time of day. Josie couldn’t deny it, it felt good.

But, as Lily pointed out, she had gone over it time after time in her head, while outside of it, nothing had changed. Besides that, she had started drawing again, and no strange curses had manifested in her. All things considered, Josephine was living in good news. 

* * *

Ice cold air entered her lungs as she gasped for air. Tangible darkness pushed against her body as she struggled forward. Joints weak, Josephine tried to support herself against the tiled wall - tiles. They were tiles. the black of the ceramics swallowed her vision for a second and she had to focus on the white mortar running in between them. There was a trigger in her head that was a beacon against the intense mental fog. She had been here before. The hallway extended in front of her and she experienced such longing that her body shook at the distance in front of her.

With every shuffle forward, her body convulsed more and more, and pins and needles started restlessly stippling up her limbs as they were released from numbness.  She looked down at her irritated hands at the hot, throbbing pain in her fingers as the saturated blood clotting under what was left of her fingernails. But she couldn’t look away from her destination for too long. A few more steps. It was becoming easier and easier to walk while sensation was returned to her. Josephine could make out something at the end of the hallway and her heart seemed ready to split her ribcage at the inevitable craving to reach it. It was a door, the same unforgiving black as the tiles that surrounded her. There was a blinding gleam off the silver doorknob that seared into her pupils, and then she was falling.

* * *

This time Josephine awoke screaming. Her brain felt like it had been removed and replaced upside down as she nauseously laboured against the claustrophobic machine she was placed in.  She drew in ragged, panicked breaths. Phil Temporalis hastily helped her out of the ties and checked on her health. But this time Josie did not vomit. Her head was spinning as she collapsed on a chair and studied her own hands. They were identical to how they looked before she entered the timepiece that evening, yet the same throbbing pain was travelling through her shuddering bones. It became all too easy to imagine blood pumping sickeningly under her skin. She vaguely heard Phil discussing with Dumbledore, but she couldn’t concentrate. Josie had just realised something much more important. She recognised that door. 

“Prof-” Josephine stammered quietly. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Professor Dumbledore,” She said. The headmaster came into her vision at her side as she leaned heavily agains the armrest of her chair. His concerned expression made her want to tell him everything, to reassure him. All this pain she was going through meant something- all this effort and risky experimentation- she didn’t regret any of it. Wanting to explain all of this abstract emotion to the professor, all she managed to get out of her tired vocal chords was: “I think it’s working.”

 


	37. Thirty Seven

THIRTY-SEVEN

Professor Dumbledore insisted that Josephine rest and regain her strength before they discuss her experience in the timepiece and further action, which was deemed necessary by all parties, although Josie was itching to see what Temporalis and Dumbledore thought of her findings. She was escorted back to her dorm by Phil, for fear of her collapsing from exhaustion. However, successfully in her bed, Josephine still couldn’t sleep. She stayed awake for another couple of hours, unable to keep her mind from what she saw. The pristine tiles and that dark door… They were exactly like the ones she saw in the Department of Mysteries before she got sent back in time. Mulling over it for a while, the Sigmund Freud in her deciphered it as her mental dreamscape. The Department of Mysteries was the last place she saw from the future, it would only make sense for it’s hallways to be the vehicle for her return. It wasn’t at all that far fetched - and it would explain why she felt such a need to enter the door. Through that door was her old life, she was sure of it. 

First thing the next morning, before any of her dorm mates were awake yet, as it was a Saturday, Josephine made her way to Dumbledore’s unannounced at her urgency to share this information. 

“Sugar Mouse”, Josephine supplied the password. Rising to the level of Dumbledore’s office, she thought about what she was going to say. The next time she went into the machine would surely be the final trip. She was so close to that door. With a determined step, she approached the office door and knocked three times before entering. Inside the room, Dumbledore sat at his desk, quill poised over parchment. Before Josephine could say anything, Dumbledore spoke.

“Good morning, Josephine,” He put down his quill and gestured toward the chair in front of him. “I trust you slept well.” His voice was serious, stern. None of the whimsy of Penny Lane was with him now. 

“Yes, thank you. It seems you’ve been expecting me,” Josephine said, slightly embarrassed about her brash entry. She sat down. 

“Well, yes, I expected you’d be keen to share what you saw in the time vortex last night.” He said, as if it was obvious - and it was. Josie never knew where to look when talking to Professor Dumbledore, his eye contact was so intense.

“Yes, so, actually, I was in the same space as befo-” Josephine started, but was interrupted by the Headmaster’s raised hand.

“As eager as I see you are, Miss Swire, I’ve decided on what I think is the wisest solution, and that is to stop this experimentation immediately.” This is not what Josie had expected. Caught off guard, she started feeling a familiar throbbing energy at her fingertips. “At the first testing of our contraption I was already feeling uncertain about putting you under those kinds of risks. However, as you know, I reasoned it with the logic of the greater good. The invention of this magic would be revolutionary, and, more importantly, we’d be able to get you home.” He said these last words with a certain sense of gentleness. “Yesterday night’s events have proven even more dangerous than the first encounter, which is bad news, I’m afraid. While we will keep developing the machine and it’s theory of magic, we won’t be performing any more human experimentation.”

“But, Professor-” Josephine attempted. They couldn’t stop now! They were so close! “I would only need one more session, I promise-” 

“I simply forbid it.” His words were firm, but his expression was sympathetic. “I am responsible for the health of all my students and I can not keep knowingly and purposefully putting you in this danger, no matter how calculated it is.” Josie bit her lip and nodded silently. “However, I will be sure to update you on any significant developments that Phillius and I make.” There was a small silence between them as Josephine accepted this. It was a logical decision, but damn it if it wasn’t frustrating. 

“I understand,” She said finally. Dumbledore gave a slight nod. 

“That is all,” He said, quieter. “Now, I must make my appointment with Professor Sprout, she was quite unsettled at how late I was last time.” He gave a small smile, a reassurance, and a reminder that the normal day’s activities were resuming without her. He walked to the door and opened it for her. “Have a good day, Miss Swire.”

* * *

In the dining hall, Josephine spotted Lily and company eating breakfast at the Gryffindor table. They were all present, with James and Sirius in their quidditch uniforms. James’s hair looked more disheveled than usual, which was saying something, and they were both covered with a generous layer of dirt. Apparently they had been up even earlier than she. She sat next to Sirius, who sat on the end of the group with a piece of buttered toast balanced in his teeth, as well as one in his hand. 

“That hungry, huh?” She quipped as she reached for the cereal. 

“Mmhrmm,” Sirius managed enthusiastically. 

“Wes wouldn’t let us eat breakfast before practice this morning,” James explained between his own mouthfuls of toast. “He said it would make us ‘lighter’,” He rolled his eyes. Lily scoffed. 

“You don’t agree, Lil?” Marlene asked, amused.

“No, of course not. That’s not the way biological science works,” She said, her frustrated hands waving the thought away. “This is a perfect example of why Muggle Studies should be compulsory!” Sirius gave Josephine an entertained look out of the corner of his eye that said ‘this again’, but all Josie could focus on was the considerable bruise along his right jaw. 

“What’ve you done?” She groaned.

“ _I_ haven’t done anything!” He insisted, swallowing his toast. “McTavish over here just happens to have a very wide swing radius…” With a menacing twitch of his head he indicated to an older, muscular boy a bit further down the table, presumably the second beater for the Gryffindor quidditch team. Josie muffled her laughter. 

“He hit you in the face?”

“He shouldn’t have been flying that close anyway,” James offered, grinning.

“Oh, shut up,” Sirius snapped. “I’ll go see Madam Pomfrey after breakfast.” 

 


	38. Thirty Eight

THIRTY-EIGHT

Josephine stood up after breakfast to head back to Gryffindor tower. As soon as she left the table, Sirius jumped up too.

“You alright?” She queried.

“Yeah, I just finished eating,” He explained quickly. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. The group looked pointedly at his half finished breakfast on his plate, and, in fact, the toast he was still holding in his hand. Noticing, he stuffed the whole thing in his mouth and shrugged. “Sthee?” He dusted his hands. 

“Yeah, I see much more than I would like to, actually,” Lily joked as Sirius messily choked down the crumbs. Josie giggled. Impressively finishing his toast in two seconds flat, he looked indignantly upon the others.  

“Whatever, I’m just keen to get to Pomfrey’s and get this bruise sorted out,” He retorted and stalked off as the others laughed. Josephine snorted and hurried after the  boy. 

“Are you actually all right?” Josephine asked when she caught up to him outside the great hall. “Stuffing that toast in your face with that bruise probably wasn’t a good idea.” Even now she couldn’t help sniggering a little. Sirius had his hand on his jaw as they waited for the stairs to move. Josie was confronted with his height in a way she always realised anew when standing beside him. She could imagine all too well resting her head against his chest. But she really was getting ahead of herself.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” He replied, dropping his hand and giving her a smile that put her at ease. But then: “Arh!” Sirius exclaimed suddenly as his hand flew back up to his face. 

“What?” 

“It hurts to smile now,” Sirius said sheepishly, smirking none the less.

“You big baby, let me see,” Josephine demanded. They stepped onto the moving staircase and were carried gently through the air. Josie faced Sirius, a couple steps higher, and pulled his hand away to examine him. With one hand she cupped his jaw, thumb on the tender blue skin, and with the other she pushed his hair back. His skin was warm and soft underneath her thumb, with his faint stubble teasing the nerves in her hand. The bruise was already as long as the length of his cheek, and would no doubt grow as it discoloured.

“How does it look?” Sirius asked, and when Josephine focused away from the wound she noticed his gaze on her under a hooded eye. She squinted at him.

“Totally badass,” She deemed, and released him. 

* * *

 

They walked across the school, chatting of the weekend and their Hogsmeade visit. It sounded so delightfully normal that Josephine almost forgot about the events of her past, and Josephine so savoured talking to him. It was strange how her mind had changed so much over the course of meeting Sirius Black - despite everything, she had taken a liking to the boy. As they strolled, Sirius took the chance to inform her of the full moon that Monday. Another meeting of the Marauders was scheduled that evening. They didn’t have the luxury of being care-free. The tone had turned pensive as they considered what lay before them.

“Sirius?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you trust me?” It was a question she had been wanting to ask for a while. After all, at the introduction of this strange girl who knew things she shouldn’t, Sirius was the least convinced. She couldn’t blame him. But surely now things were different? He was silent for a minute, but Josephine didn’t break it. He seemed to be considering it with integrity.

“I don’t know,” He admitted, and Josephine’s heart sunk. She was already starting to tell herself ‘I told you so’ when Sirius added; “But I want to.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “I just wish you’d tell us the truth.” As guilt started radiating from her, Josephine defended.

“I only lie about what I have to. I promise.” It was meant to reassure Sirius, but at the admission of her lies, he seemed unsettled. Josie touched his arm. And then she said something that hadn’t even occurred to her until it came out of her mouth: “I’ll tell you everything someday.” However spontaneous it was, Josephine also recognised it as one of the most honest things she had ever said. 

“Someday,” Sirius laughed quietly. “I will hold you to that, Josephine Swire.” It was a honourable exchange that laid to rest the unresolved mystery between them, for now. 

“I believe you.” Josephine responded. There was no way Sirius Black would forget a promise like that, and she had trouble anticipating it as well. Nevertheless, their conversation gradually turned to lighter things, and Josie bumped Sirius playfully with her shoulder as they teased.

“I have to stock up on dungbombs in Hogsmeade today,” Sirius said, as if he had just remembered. “I need to get Potter back.”

“What do you have in mind?” Josie asked, curious, and excited to be in on his plan.

“Nothing specific yet, but I definitely need dungbombs,” He replied, musing. “I’ll think of something.” He ran his fingers through his hair in such a way that made Josephine jealous. As they walked the hallways started to gradually get more crowded as students finished breakfast.  

“Can’t wait,” Josephine approved. She stopped walking, and observed him as he turned. She had gotten so carried away with the conversation that she only just realised she wasn’t going to the Gryffindor common room at all.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, locating her stationary feet and hands behind her back. 

“We’re here,” Josie gestured. They stood in front of the door to the infirmary, which had a distinct smell of fresh bandages and overpoweringly sweet cough syrup. Thin streams of light dappled the walkway between the lines of beds. There was only one other patient in the infirmary, a forlorn younger boy with an eyepatch. 

“First year - Wingardium Leviosa,” Sirius predicted as they walked in, loosening his tie. Josie couldn’t help but entertain the idea that he was speaking from experience.

“Swish and flick!” Josephine sang in an impression of Flitwick. Sirius laughed, and they reached the Nurse’s office. Surprising them both, Madam Pomfrey’s voice came from behind them.

“Oh! Not you again,” She cried at the sight of Sirius Black.


End file.
